Lily Whisperer at Camp
by Skye Phoenix Dove
Summary: This is a story I wrote when I was young so don't judge me, it's terribly non-canon. Basically, my character goes to Camp Half-Blood and gets obsessed with Nico Di Angelo (I know I spelt it wrong). Plot changes eventually but I'm never going to keep writing this anyway. Rated T because I'm paranoid.
1. Note

Look, I'm not exactly writing this story right now. I wrote this when I was a lot younger. So today I saw that huge file just sitting there and thought 'what the heck?' and I was going to delete it until my little sister suggested I put it up here. Since I wrote so many chapters of this and it just seemed like a waste to just delete the whole thing.

So here you are. It's ridiculously self-centered, and almost completely non-cnon, there are loads of spelling/grammar errors, lots of it wouldn't make sense, and I am never continuing this story because it's been so long and my interest/writing style has changed a lot. I can't get the rhythm of it anymore.

You're going to read this and tell me that's it's stupid, or wrong, or so badly confusing, I'll take it all in.

And yes, it's not complete, but I am never going to actually finish it so why the hell should I check 'In Progress'?

* * *

Skye: I'm not going to put this in every document so here.

Lily: ...?

Skye: Nah, I don't feel like doing it.

Lily: But you have to.

Skye: Nah. Ask Nico to do it.

Nico: Me?

Skye: Yeah, you.

Nico: But...

Lily: Please?

Nico: ...

Lily: *Puppy Dog Eyes*

Nico: ...All rights go to Rick Riordan.

Skye: Thanks Lily. Read if you must.

Lily: It's a good story!

Nico: ...


	2. Lily I

**Demigod Diaries - Lily I**

Just a few weeks before, I had been a more or less ordinary student. Changed schools least three times each year. Got all As. Hardly saw my family. Never knew that monsters had been attacking my schools for years, forcing me to leave. Came home one day and got attacked by a hellhound, and wound up at Camp Half-Blood. Tried to live ordinarily as possible when that day came that I was claimed and finally made it impossible for me to be completely normal…

It had started out nicely enough. Another day in the Hermes cabin. "Wake up as early as possible to get the earliest spots for showering and hot water!" I'm commonly the last, but it doesn't bother me; growing up in a warm summers country makes people appreciate cold water. And the last person to finish getting ready stayed behind to clean the cabin. (Problem was, the Hermes cabin also had tons of thieves, would you really trust them to clean up your belongings?)

That day, I had woken up very early and had gotten a warm shower and a quick change of clothes. Of course, my cabin mates thought I was weird, waking up so early. But it came with its benefits.

After a noisy breakfast with my favorite GrapeCherryBubblefroth, we played Capture-The-Flag. I was relatively good at Capture-The-Flag, after all, nobody paid me any attention. It was easy to whip from tree to tree unprofessionally, squealing loudly at any spotted bugs to fully attain the "I'm hopeless don't bother about me how can I ever be a threat?" look, then dash out and snatch the flag in a crazy bolt for the border.

So I had buckled myself loosely into my armor (planning to chuck the load once halfway through the game) and scanned the crowd for my would-be friends; the other undetermined demigods, Grace and Philip.

Grace and Philip had come to Camp Half-Blood on the same bus at the same day that I had. We weren't exactly friends yet, but I figured that it would eventually work out. Grace was nice, even if she chatted way too much. She was easily everyone's favorite, but she seemed drawn to Philip, possibly crushing on him, and Philip seemed to be crazy about her. Either way, I knew that as long as I stayed near to Philip Grace will stick around too and we'll eventually become best buds.

Philip was more like me. He was quiet and didn't fit in well. I figured that he only put up with me because I was the only other friend he had, but I don't mind. Let him be that way, if he wanted me to be his friend then I'll be his friend, and soon he'll be mine.

Unlike me, however, he had a wicked good sense of humor and often called another called Trina and me 'twins' because of our blue eyes, black hair and height. He was caring too, which I hoped was something else that I shared with him.

Oh no, I don't have a crush on him, at least, I hope not. Yes or no, it would have to wait until we were friends first.

It took quite awhile before I spotted them, they were hovering near the alpine woods further back. Excited to find out what mischief Grace had planned for today, I jogged over to where they were waiting. They were waiting for me, and it won't be much longer before we start banding together as a group. Unfortunately, running around in loose armor is not a very good idea and I tripped on my failing sword and fell flat on my nose.

Philip had a good sense of humor, but I had enough experience to understand only my feelings were this easily hurt. Although he was only making nervous chatter, I felt worse and worse every time he regaled my 'pancake face-plant' moment.

Grace didn't help. Tired and sensitive as she was, she doubled over and kept up her tearful laughing throughout the entire walk, which took quite some time.

I had to work hard not to cry, after all, they weren't trying to hurt my feelings intentionally. They were just being themselves. Still the thought didn't really help. I adjusted my loose armor (it was beginning to feel quite silly by now) and adverted my eyes away from where my would-be friends were wiping the tears from their eyes. Summoning up some courage, I tried to talk, but the bundle of emotions inside me only allowed me to emit a squeak, which of course made Grace and Philip laugh even harder.

When Philip had finished telling it for the seventh time (seriously, how can the story of one fall take so long?) Grace straightened up and gave me a friendly smile.

That melted my heart. I had always been a sucker for that kind smile of hers. I wished that we could be a trio forever and every one could forget that I had ever fallen down in loose armor.

Grace gave a flirty giggle, then put a hand to Philip's shoulder to indicate that he should stop laughing. "Okay, listen up, George's paired us off with the Apollo, and Aphrodite cabin. They want you to hang around the edge with the Aphrodite girls and stay out of the way." she shot me a meaningful glance.

That got the I got the message alright, she might as well have held up a big sign that said "DON'T DO THE SAME THING YOU DID LAST TIME!"

The was because the last time we played capture-the-flag, I had been attacked with a group of kids, from my own cabin just before the border! Just them trying to get the flag and earn the glory, giving the opponent enough time to take the win.

Well it was a bummer that I couldn't play, but there was no choice. Lunging my heavy armor, I plopped myself down on the grass as the whistle was blown. It was a good opportunity to talk to Philip and get closer, but he didn't seem to be in the mood.

That was when this thing bit me in the leg. Probably a scorpion or a spider. I felt a sharp pain shoot up my leg. It was so numbing, but I bit my lip to keep from passing out. I tried to remember what I had learned in first-aid class. My brain was starting to fog up, but I could remember something about cleaning the wound. I tried to walk and collapsed on the ground.

I remember a boy running over to me, but the world seemed so foggy that I could hardly remember what he looked like. He was pale, that much I know. And he had black eyes. I don't mean pupils, everybody has that, I mean the ring around the pupil where it usually has green or blue or really dark brown? Well, this guy has honest-to-goodness pitch black eyes. He looked at me and kept asking me if I could hear him, but I couldn't answer him. At one point, he put one hand under me and helped me to my feet. I think I mumbled something like "The water." looking back, I should have told him to get help instead.

I can remember his voice. It was sort of sweet in a really calming sort of way, but it also gave me the chills. Anyway, he sort of half carried me there, to the river, and put me down. I instantly felt better.

I could sort of see him then, but my vision was still fuzzy. Most info is that he wasn't wearing the standard Camp Half-Blood T-shirt, and I think he had black hair. He was staring at me. Then he said, "Are you OK, Daughter of Poseidon? I'm Nico. I-" but then he froze, interrupted by a cheer. He turned his back and ran. My vision was still fuzzy, I could feel myself blacking out.

Last thing I saw was the face of a blonde girl holding a silver banner. I recognized her. The famous Annabeth, leader of the Athenians.


	3. Lily II

**Demigod Diaries - Lily II**

"Lily, Lily, Lily, wake up."

I opened my eyes. There was Annabeth, standing over me. I licked the nectar off my lips. Annabeth was smiling kindly at me.

"Feeling better? That was a 'centuroids sculptaratus' scorpion that bit you. Paralyzes it's victims before they die. You're a special case, and a lucky one. In case you're wondering, it appears your father is Poseidon."

I barely had enough time to process that before she pushed another spoonful of ambrosia and necter to my mouth.

I gulped down the syrup and gathered up the courage to ask Annabeth a few things. Everyone knew that she h ad lived here the longest. She practically ruled Camp Half-Blood.

"Annabeth..."

"Yes?"

"Who was that boy with me?"

"What are you talking about?"

That was a good question, what was I talking about? About that boy in my dream, I realized. He was real, and he had told me his name was Nico. So I asked.

"There was this... boy. He called himself Nico. Helped me to the stream." I looked up, Annabeth was staring at me with a slightly dumbstruck slightly scared expression. "He had black eyes." I added helpfully, though I doubt it actually helped.

Annabeth put down her things. "Lily, are you feeling all right? There is no such boy here at Camp Half-Blood. And I should know, I've interviewed almost every new camper around here." she smiled sympathetically, but I could have sworn she looked slightly scared.

I was stunned. It was no hallucination, that much I knew. The boy was definitely real. But I didn't say anything.

Annabeth took my hand and helped me up. She led me out to the fresh chilly air. Smiling, she took me to my new cabin, Cabin Three.

The first thing that struck me was the deep, salty air. Like seawater. It was strong and heavy, nothing had ever smelled so good.

Then I noticed I was completely alone. There was no one there, nothing lying on the beds, no sign that anyone had lived there for very long. Very depressing.

But I supposed this was my new cabin. Cabin Completely Alone

I stared out my window. It was beginning to get dark. Dinner would start soon. And I would be sitting alone at Table Three.

I didn't usually mind dinner at the overcrowded Hermes table. I still got to eat vegetarian food and drink GrapeCherryBubblefroth. I would get to talk with Philip and try to get closer to Grace, but right then it was just lonely.

To my left were two empty tables, Zeus and Hera's. To my right was the Hermes table, laughing and joking and reminding me what I'll never be part of. Grace and Philip were talking to another girl, who I think was called Eleanor.

It was very, very lonely.

Two days later, after spending that long at my table and cabin alone, Annabeth passed by my table talking to Chiron. I managed to catch wisps of their conversation.

Annabeth said something like "...saw the... bad for... don't know... react."

Then Chiron "Maybe... Iris-message..."

"But the last time... scared the campers..."

"...old friend... respect him... same..."

"He won't be the same! And she says she SAW him!" That part I could hear pretty clearly.

"Calm down... Make sure all the campers are in their cabins... don't want anyone struck by lightning."

"Yes Chiron."

Then they were too far away.

My head was spinning with thoughts. Annabeth obviously knew who Nico was, but why wouldn't she me? It was frustrating, but I figured that I shouldn't really ask. After all, I couldn't very well accuse her of lying without admitting I'd eavesdropped on their conversation.

It was a dreary night. Dark and damp. Rumor had it that a huge storm was on it's way, though how that was possible was quite a mystery. After all, Camp Half-Blood had a protective shield around it which prevented it from ever raining. I thought about the storm as I paced around my cabin. What had Chiron said? something like ' don't want anyone struck by lightning'.

Storms had lightning, what if this was somehow connected to the storm?

It was getting dark so I told myself not to worry and cuddled into my warm bed.

I don't know when I dozed off, but it couldn't have been long before I heard screaming.


	4. Lily III

**Demigod Diaries - Lily III**

Outside, a huge storm was brewing. The first storm I've seen since arriving at Camp Half-Blood. Lightning was striking, stopping midair as to not hit anything.

I threw on my sweater and stepped outside. People were gathering around the fountain where we usually made our Iris-messages in the daytime. Some Aphrodite girls were screaming. I saw Annabeth trying to lead people into the their cabins.

One bolt of lightning came so close to me that I could feel the static as it passed. One barely missed the water fountain.

Suddenly, one particular bolt of lightning struck the earth. Campers screamed as it hit the ground. For a split second, it seemed to light up the form of a boy, as if a kid was glowing with white light and standing under a bolt of lightning. Then it was gone.

The storm still raged on. Chiron appeared and ordered the campers back to their cabins, but no one would listen.

Something caught my eye, a shadow. This wasn't very odd, though at night, thanks to the full moon and bolts of lightning. But this shadow seemed to have no one causing it. It moved by itself and wasn't connected to any other shadows. Someone from the Apollo cabin almost stepped on it and said "Ow!" which seemed strange.

I seemed to be the only one that noticed the shadow, but maybe Annabeth saw it. She kept trying to get to it, until Chiron ordered everyone to go to sleep. This time, no one argued.

I looked back and couldn't see the shadow anymore.

Back in my room, I couldn't sleep, so I read stories about Percy Jackson. He had also been a demigod, but I hadn't realized all the similarities until I couldn't turn back.

Then the door creaked open, the lights went off. I stifled a scream. A figure appeared. He wasn't much taller than me but it was as if he was shrouded in darkness. He casually rested his hand on the wall, and the lights flickered on without so much as a flip of a switch. He slowly turned to look up to my top bunk at me. I had enough time to process that he had very messy black hair, looked very thin under his black aviator jacket, had a super-pale complexion, seemed to be wearing a black shirt underneath, had a pair of very ripped-up jeans, a glittering silver skull ring, a chain for a belt which held a swinging sword... and pitch-black eyes.

He just stood there.

After a minute of uncomfortable silence he drooped his head a little awkwardly.

Soon he started fidgeting and playing with his fingers.

A little later he began twisting his silver skull ring and tiny wisps of white smoky ghosts started appearing.

I figured if we stayed quiet any longer he would do something even freakier, like exploding the whole cabin, or maybe summoning a storm by accident. (Wait, what if he already did that? I mean, here was one totally out-of-place kid who fixed the lights by touching the wall and probably appeared during this this freak storm!) I gathered my courage and started thinking of something to say. Like maybe 'Hi!' When I had finally convinced myself to say that, I looked back at him. I almost couldn't find him, which was freaky since he was _standing right there_. Then, just as I was opening my mouth to say hi, he looked up at me and spoke in a nervous tone.

"Um, sorry I tripped your lights. I had no idea the technology would react so strongly to the negative magic."

At that point, most of my curiosity and nervousness was replaced by anger. Tripped the lights? I'd spent the last four days thinking about him, wondering who he was, why he ran away, and he apologizes for TRIPPING THE LIGHTS?

And what was he talking about, negative magic? What negative magic? Isn't that, like, for bad guys?

And technology?! On the light bulbs? Gods, I've seen a lot of scary high-tech gear these days but hello? A light bulb? Geez, you would have to be alive in the 1930s to think a Light bulb was highly considered technology!

I could have yelled all that right at him but my shyness took over, and forced me to calm down.

Nico looked way more uncomfortable when I didn't say anything, but I didn't trust myself to speak yet.

"So, um..." he said, wincing slightly as of it hurt him to talk and was trying not to show it, "Sorry about, you know, running away from you, ah, by the lake, that day, um... yeah." He seemed so nervous and pained that I couldn't gel feeling sorry for him, and my anger subsided.

"Uh, I just... stepped into this cabin by mistake. I was sorta trying to get to Cabin Thirteen. I... I haven't really been completely awake these days." he stopped, as if hoping I would tell him something, or invite him to stay, but I knew I couldn't do either. It was against the rules to stay in another cabin after curfew, and I didn't really know what to say anyway. "Um... I guess I'll leave now."

He had already turned to leave before I called after him. "Wait."

He stopped, a hopeful look on his face. "Yeah?"

There were a lot of things I wanted to ask but I decided to focus on the most important stuff before I lost my cool.

"Are... are you staying in Camp Half-Blood? How come I never saw you around before? Who... who are you?"

He regarded me with a chilly gaze (It wasn't exactly mean but it gave me the chills)

"I'll probably be staying for a week or two, but I won't stay for long, I never do. It's not worth it. And as for who I am..." he looked me in the eye with a leveled expression, that made me unsure of whether he was mad at me or just nervous, "I am Nico Di Angelo."


	5. Lily IV

**Demigod Diaries - Lily IV**

I couldn't sleep that night. I kept thinking about that boy.

What was his last name again? I'm pretty sure he said his name was something like 'Nico The Angel' but that didn't sound right.

Scratch that, that wasn't right, full stop. He just wasn't an angel. Not that he wasn't nice, but he seemed so weird.

I mean, who carries a total stranger to the river and practically saves her life, barely introduces himself, runs away, comes back and tells her his full name once, then just turns and walks out the door?

But I almost wasn't surprised, he was one weird kid.

Even just watching him, it felt just as he said, like negative magic. Plus seeing all the freaky things he could do, like summoning that huge storm to bring himself here (okay maybe that wasn't him, I still wasn't sure), and fixing the lights by just touching the wall (if it was more complicated the that, he didn't show it), and summoning those wisps of white ghost things just by twisting his ring a little (and I'm pretty sure he wasn't even trying!) Yes. Nico The Angel was definitely creepy.

But my mind kept going back to what he had said to me when I asked him whether he stayed at Camp Half-Blood. "I'll probably be staying for a week or two, but I won't stay for long, I never do. It's not worth it." It was odd.

'Don't stay for long'? 'Never do?' He made sound like he'd stayed in Camp Half-Blood before but had left each time. Possibly run away. But that didn't make sense, we were going through October, and usually the only kids staying in Camp Half-Blood when it wasn't summer were the year-rounders like me. And they didn't usually go home in the middle.

You're probably wondering why I chose to stay at camp all year instead of staying at home. Well it's different for me. My mom and stepdad are always busy and travelling around so they don't have much time for me and my sister (yes, I have a sister. She loves me and everything but she's in a super-strict boarding school and as far as I know, she isn't a demigod). This is why they dumped me in a bunch of boarding schools, one after the other. Personally, and I never really thought about this way, but if you had to decide between sitting in math class all day with a dyslexic condition or learning how to slay Ancient Greek Monsters, which would you choose? See my point?

To add to my curiosity, Nico was obviously a really strong demigod, so he would probably be stalked by monsters all day. Camp Half-Blood was pretty much the only safe place for demigods like us. How could it be 'Not worth it'?

Needless to say it was practically impossible to fall asleep.

I don't know how I finally managed it. One second I was sitting up and deciding whether I should approach him tomorrow and talk to him, the next I was lying down and my alarm clock was ringing.

I was in such a rush I almost forgot to change out of my pajamas.

After changing and showering and all, I ran a hand through my hair and started towards breakfast while trying very hard to blend in.

It wasn't very hard to do, there often were loads of campers who were late to breakfast. Still, I walked as fast as I could without looking strange until a familiar voice called out to me.

When I looked back, I saw it was Grace. Grace is usually late, although she doesn't usually have to clean the cabin. There had been a time where I would've given anything to be her best friend, but in the past few days she'd basically ignored me. Despite that, she ran up to me like we've already been best friends forever.

She started chattering off, but I was barely listening. I was trying to figure out who Nico's godly parent was. Then maybe I would have a bigger lead.

I tried to put the most relevant things together. The storm he caused, maybe he was the son of Zeus, lord if the sky?

Grace chattered on.

No, wait, he said he was looking for Cabin Thirteen, but Zeus was Cabin One, unless he had been looking for someone else.

Grace was still chattering.

But I'd never really heard about Cabin Thirteen, so there probably wasn't anyone staying there before. Probably, Nico did belong in that cabin.

Grace was starting to get annoying, but then I thought a little. "Grace, stop."

She smiled coolly. "What, Lily?"

"Um, do you know anything about Cabin Thirteen?"

"Cabin Thirteen?" she scratched her head thoughtfully, "Oh, yes. I remember."

I slowed down and looked at her pointedly.

"Cabin Thirteen. That's the Hades cabin. Nobody's living there right now." she shot me a curious look. "Why do you ask?"

"I... I just wondered." I answered, feeling shaken up. The pieces of the puzzle were starting to click, and I didn't like the picture. I really had to get to breakfast and convince myself I was wrong. "Um... see you later." And I ran towards the dining pavilion.

Everything was starting to make sense. The black clothes, the belt chain, the skull ring, the black sword, the scary ghost things floating from the ground, the way he could travel around invisibly, and his pitch-black eyes. It explained why he seemed to radiate negative energy. I could only hope that I was wrong, he was still a pretty nice kid.

The dining Pavilion had it's usual chatter, but some kids were pointing and whispering.

My eyes scanned the room and fell on Table Fourteen. Dread filled me. He was there, sitting alone. Eating a sandwich like an ordinary kid. But now I knew. And for some reason I could remember his name. He was Nico Di Angelo, Son of Hades, Lord of the Dead.


	6. Lily V

**Demigod Diaries - Lily V**

I could hardly believe it.

As far as I knew, he was a good kid. A very strange kid, but a good kid.

He practically saved my life by carrying me to that river, he had a heart. He was a good kid.

But he was also the son of Hades, Lord of the Dead.

I shouldn't have thought like that. No one should ever be judged by their parentage but he was already so creepy. Being the child of Hades just made him seem like a highly flammable bomb.

Thinking about him like that, I started to feel sorry for him. What if he didn't have any friends just because he was the son of Hades? I felt guilty and just continued eating my sandwich without saying anything.

By the time we were done, I still wasn't sure whether I should approach him and ask him my questions and become friends. I decided to wait and see what he was like first.

Today was Wednesday, we had self-training on Wednesday. This consisted of half a dozen bizarre sports that we were required to do without guidance.

We were assigned randomly into two groups. I was in Nico's group. The others kept looking at him quizzically but he simply turned his back and ignored them.

The first was rock-climbing. Without a rope. With lava on the ground. I wasn't very good at that, but maybe it was the lava on the ground, I usually managed to get to the top.

Nico was great at it. He climbed up the wall like he'd been doing it his whole life, very impressive.

Next was swimming. In the lake. Wearing full clothes. And bloodthirsty white sharks snapping around the bottom. I used to be afraid of them, but they don't really want to harm me. I think it's a Child of Poseidon thing. Plus, I'm pretty good at swimming.

I figured Nico was gonna be pretty bad at swimming. His face turned a bit paler when he saw the water, though it was nearly impossible. Plus he still had his aviator jacket and chain belt. But he surprised me with swimming pretty fast. Maybe it was those sharks. The way they were looking at him gave me the feeling they were saying _"Look everyone! Scrawny little white boy in black! Dinner time!"_

One of the most outrageous was bungee jumping. Without a cord. Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. I hated that one, but on the way down, maybe around fifty stories high or so, I figured out how to pull the water from the beach to catch me.

I don't know how Nico did it. He was already waiting for me on the ground when I touched the sand. And I hadn't seen him jump.

The next few were slightly less crazy. Emphasize on slightly.

There was archery, where the target was on a kite in the sky. I sucked at that, wasting most of my arrows and hitting a few people.

But Nico was amazing! Every arrow would slice right through the bulls-eye. He could put five arrows on a bow and shoot them all straight through the target. Even the Apollo kids couldn't shoot that well!

Then there was water-fighting. Basically sword-fighting. Wearing ping-pong paddles for shoes. And doing while floating on the water. I was helpless, I mean, being on the water was okay, even with the ping-pong paddles, but my sword-fighting skills were terrible.

But Nico was awesome! He would draw that black sword of his and take down his opponent in less than a minute!

The last one was more of a game. It was called Hide-&-Hunt. One team hid, the other team caught you and brought back to 'base'. Then they swapped teams.

We were on the hunting team. I didn't manage to catch anyone but Nico caught three. He walked in this sort of confident sort of nervous way. He barely talked to anyone, and just pinned them by their clothes with his arrow.

When we swapped teams, I managed to hide for an hour. Five hours later, they gave up looking for Nico, and he came out looking very pleased with himself.

Way cool.


	7. Lily VI

**Demigod Diaries - Lily VI**

You'd think after acing every sport that Nico Di Angelo would be happy, but he wasn't. At least, he didn't show it. Maybe being amazing wasn't good enough for the angel.

I studied him as we sort of walked together back to the heart of the camp. His expression was impossible to read. He didn't look in the least bit tired, which was odd cause we had been working so hard that day. He didn't look happy about doing so well in everything. He didn't exactly look sad either, but you could tell he was a little. I wanted to become good friends with him, despite his creepiness and flat attitude, but I wasn't sure how.

As we walked pass the fountain, kids quieted down and started whispering as we approached (though I'm guessing was really just Nico they were interested in). One of the Ares campers, Barth Slow, laughed and called out "Hey, Death Face! Shot any innocent kids with your arrows lately?" his friends laughed with him. Nico's face turned red, I could hear him gritting his teeth.

"Oi! Why so sad? Go ask the skeletons to throw a party for you!" he taunted again. I flinched away from Nico, his clothes were steaming. He took a deep breath.

One of the boys pushed him into the fountain and laughed. "Sorry! Maybe your ghost sister will curse me for you!"

That was obviously the last straw. I helped him up from the fountain, but his eyes were on that group of kids. His eyes were wild and murderous. Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain. I tried hard not to scream. I practically dropped Nico back to the fountain, but he was standing just fine. I looked down at my hands, they bore scorch marks. I turned in time to see Nico thrust out his outstretched palm, a ball of fire flew from his fist and engulfed the kids in flames.

The few Ares campers that weren't burned got up and fled the scene.

They had all managed to get out alive. All with burned clothes, scorch marks and scratches. They steered clear of Nico as they got out.

Nico fell back into the fountain. I rubbed my hands on my jeans, cautiously touched the edge of his shirt, _and then_ helped him up. "Thanks." he said wearily. Then he looked at my hands. "You're hurt."

I had almost forgotten about those marks. But they still hurt.

I tried to pull away before Nico touched them but after I felt the stabbing pain of his fingers brushing across my wounds, it only felt cold. I stared as they closed up and disappeared like nothing had ever happened.

Nico said nothing. He didn't mention anything to prove he had tried to set some bullies on fire. He didn't say anything about how he had just cured me by touching me. He barely seemed aware of either.

We reached the tip of the hill. Further below was the dining pavilion. I looked down, noted that we still had time, them realized I wasn't keen to sit alone again.

Nico seemed to realize it too. He sat down and crossed his legs. Staring at the scene below. Feeling tired, I got down on the ground and hugged my knees.

We sat in silence. It wasn't very awkward this time.

Nico spoke so softly I almost didn't hear him. "I'm sorry I burned you. I've been trying to control myself, but, every time I came back here I couldn't help it." He wouldn't meet my eyes, looking everywhere but at me.

I nodded. I didn't know how else to respond to _"I'm sorry I burned you."_

Nico kept talking. The sun dipped lower in the sky. "It's just... I don't like getting teased about Bianca." he hung his head.

I felt a small twinge of jealousy, but I don't really know why. Then I realized that Bianca was probably his sister. His "ghost sister". I wanted to ask him what happened to her, but I didn't want him to think I was pushy.

Nico brushed some of his hair away from his face. He looked ready to cry. "I know you're mad at me for running away from you at the river. I had too. I could hear them coming. I... I'm not good with people."

I had been ready to listen to whatever he wanted to say, but I felt like someone had whacked me with a very thick stick. Because he was right, I _was_ mad at him for leaving me. I just couldn't think about it. Accepting that, I just felt so guilty.

Nico seemed ready to tell me his life story. Instead he said, "I only have six more months, six more months! Then I definitely can't stay. I wish I could stay."

I had no idea what he was saying. But instead I said, "Well, I didn't get to introduce myself properly. I'm Lily Whisperer."

Nico smiled at me. A real smile. "Whisperer... Sounds mysterious."

"Oh, I'm a very mysterious girl." I said with a slight laugh. Nico grinned. I almost forgot what we were talking about. Hardly anyone could make me feel so at ease.

A chatter rose from the dining pavilion, a stream of campers came trooping on their way.

Nico smiled. "We missed dinner." he said. He sounded very happy to miss dinner.

I smiled back. "Well, we better go then. Or we'll be spending tomorrow in the kitchen!"

He glanced down the hill, nodded then we walked back down in silence. Nico paused at at my cabin, the continued on to Cabin Thirteen. I watched him go, and couldn't understand him. He could be so friendly, yet most of the time he retracted into his distant, shadowy self.

If possible, it was harder than ever to get to sleep


	8. Lily VII

**Demigod Diaries - Lily VII**

I just couldn't fall asleep. I kept thinking about Nico. He was so strange.

· He wore 'death' clothes

· He never cared how he looked

· He didn't comment on the insults

· He hardly tried to make friends

· He kept acting like he was in pain

· He was freaky powerful

The next morning, I didn't see him until he came running in at breakfast. His aviator jacket was flapping open, his belt chain hung oddly with the weight of his sword. He looked slightly pinkish from running and his hair was in a mess (though his hair had always been messy).

Chiron paused as he came huffing in. But he let him take his seat without a second glance. As Nico sat, May G. Carl from the Hecate cabin flicked her wrist and causes his chair to disappear. Nico went sprawling on the floor.

People started laughing. I couldn't see Nico's expression but he just pulled out another chair and sat down quietly. May G. Carl stopped laughing.

Chiron was still talking, but I wasn't really paying attention. I kept looking over at Nico. He was playing with the food on his plate, not seeming to put any in his mouth. I haven't really seen Nico eat anything since he arrived at Camp Half-Blood.

Over at the Hecate table, Fare E. Wan was shaking May G. Carl with a worried expression.

Chiron was saying something like "...please, no more magic tricks will be tolerated and will result in serious punishment from now on… monster classes will be canceled today, unfortunately… several Mythomagic cards were found, but if you don't claim them by Tuesday then… and the rest of the day will be spent preparing for this week's games; the Sword-fighting Competition! This event will be held at the end of the month, on Sunday as usual and everyone is expected to participate..." wait, WHAT?!

A SWORD-FIGHTING COMPETITION?

I would die in a sword-fighting competition. I'll be totally humiliated.

On the other hand, this might make the other kids respect Nico more.

As we were leaving, Will. Zard Kidd and Fare E. Wan, both from May G. Carl's Hecate cabin, started yelling for help.

Standing on my tiptoes, I realized what had happened.

May G. Carl was standing where the bench had been pulled away from. Hands outstretched, eyes half-closed, head lifted three inches from the ground, mouth open with a smile, frinch flying above her face, legs bent in sitting position as she stood.

She was frozen in time.

Nico stood further away from the group. I weaved my way out from the crowd of campers, struggling to get to him.

Chiron's voice cut through the noise. "What is going on here?"

Fare E. Wan called out to him "Chiron! Hurry! May's been frozen in time! She's gone cold!"

Chiron started trotting over. Nico sighed and snapped his fingers. Immediately, May G. Carl burst into laughter, stopping when she dropped to the ground. "What?" she demanded. "What are you all staring at?" Then she looked down. Waves of worry and confusion crossed her face. "When did you guys move the bench? What happened?"

Chiron huffed. "Madeline Georgia Carl, do not ever play silly jokes like that again. Please report to kitchen duty in twenty minutes."

Fare E. Wan and Will. Zard Kidd helped a very confused May to her feet.

Nico trudged towards the woods. He unclenched his fists and started running. The grass withered and died beneath his feet.

I looked back, then ran after him.

It was an hour before I found him. He was sitting in Bulls-Eye Clearing in a circle of dried yellow grass. He was plucking the petals off a pink chrysanthemum flower and moving his lips in the form of the 'Love me, Love me not' chant. He was working fast, winding every petal into a sort of pretty pink chain.

When he finished, he huffed at his bare stem and began connect the ends of his cord. Now he had a pretty pink yarn-like band in his hands.

I figured that now would be a pretty good time to go see him.

I stopped when his hands began to fly over the cord. They moved around and molded the cord into different shapes.

Nico's hands kept moving, weaving it into some kind of yarn statue. When he was done he sat it down, satisfied. I craned my neck to see... And stepped on a very loud twig.

The cord disappeared into his pocket and he put his hand on his sword. "Who's that?" he asked uncertainly.

I was worried he'll attack me so I pretended to have just stumbled over.

"Um... Nico?" I called. Nico's eyes bore into me, somehow making me feel slightly sleepy.

Nico relaxed. He came over and gingerly held brushed a leaf out of my hair. His pitch-black eyes made it hard for me to read his expression.

"I guess we better get back to camp." I told him. He only nodded. I tried to hold his hand but he flinched away from me.

As we walked in, a few girls started whispering and sneaking looks in our direction.

I felt a chill. There was frost gathering on the left side of my clothes and hair. Nico was acting like nothing had happened.

A boy from the Ares cabin, naturally a good sword-fighter, yelled, "Hey, White Boy! Bet you're not joining the competition, eh coward! You'll probably trip over your sword and fall!"

That was all it took. Ice spread from Nico's feet. Covering the ground. Heading towards him.


	9. Lily VIII

**Demigod Diaries - Lily VIII**

My eyes were wide, not knowing what will happen.

Nico fixed them with cool steady gaze which made the crew laugh a little more uneasily.

He clenched his fists. The boys turned around to leave, but too late. The ice reached their feet and spread all over them, turning them each into ice statues.

I braced myself for cold, but the ice had melted a circle around me. It stopped spreading. Nico unclenched his fists, and the ice began melting normally.

Those boys stayed statues, although a small trickle of water dripped down from one shoe.

I was a bit wary of him as we approached the cabins. I kept feeling worried that I'll say something wrong, then I'll be an ice statue. Or maybe on fire. Or something else. Either way, I was a bit nervous about being with him. He was really like a highly flammable bomb, and I was a lit match walking right next to him, everyone was.

We stopped at my cabin. Just to break the silence, I invited him in. He kept looking round uneasily, as if afraid of a trap, but he nodded stiffly and came in.

I had tried to clean up my cabin a bit since the first time I was here. There were now various patterns on the bedspread, a cupboard for the few books and treasures I had, and a chain of glowing butterfly-shaped mats.

"So, how did you do that trick with the ice?" I asked curiously.

He looked nervous, like this was a dangerous subject, but he ran a hand through his hair and answered me, thus making his hair even messier. "Just an ice-sheet spell. It isn't permanent, probably'll wear off in around five hours. I learned it... a few years ago."

"Oh." I said. That pretty much summed it up. I couldn't get over how he was so powerful and seemed so experienced, yet he was only a few years older than me. "Well... I've been wondering... was it you who caused that storm?"

He nodded absently, not really hearing me. I realized he was staring at my display of Mythomagic figurines. He pointed. "You play Mythomagic?" he asked.

"Yeah, I got obsessed with it last summer. Collected a bunch of them while I was studying Greek Gods, after the monsters started attacking." I felt a little embarrassed, talking about a silly game like that, but Nico just grinned like a kid showing of a new crayon picture.

"I loved that game! There was this year I practically spent all my time collecting these things!" he said, picking up my Poseidon figurine.

"How many did you get?" I asked. It felt good to act like regular kids talking about a game way to childish for us.

Nico's smile dimmed a little. But he spoke with the same enthusiasm. "Practically all of them, including the holographic cards!"

I laughed. "Well? Wanna play?" I asked. He smiled a "oh you don't know who your challenging" smile but just said "Bring it!"

I gathered up my figurines and set them down, then pulled out my card album. Nico reached into his coat pocket and only brought out one, a rare gold statue of Hades.

"I thought you said you had practically all of them!" I asked, confused.

Nico scowled. "I... I lost them, okay? Now are we gonna play or not?"

I was feeling puzzled, but that didn't stop me from geek-talking at the sight of that rare statue. "Doesn't that have 4000 attack power?"

"5000. But only if your opponent attacks first." he said. He put his aviator jacket on the ground next to him and we begun to play.

He beat me immediately. Then he beat me again. He beat the third time, and the fourth time. He beat me the seventeenth time. He was good at Mythomagic.

Soon we were sitting on the floor and talking normally. It seemed like Mythomagic was the only casual subject in his life.

"Okay, we better get ready for the campfire now. We've been playing for hours." I said.

He smiled at me. "Lily, the campfire is in another three hours!" he grinned.

A little later, he picked up his jacket and headed towards the door. He opened it but before he put his foot out the door, a huge gust of wind knocked his jacket out of his grasp. It's contents spilled onto the ground. His figurine, a little gold bag, a small blue book, a pink yarn statue...

I picked up the pink yarn statue. Definitely the one I had seen him weaving before. "What's this?" I asked. It looked a lot like me. If Nico meant it to look like me, he certainly succeeded.

Nico's face turned red. He snatched the statue back and mumbled something like "Piece of junk." Then hurriedly scooped the rest of his things and quickly slipped out the door.

I took a shower and a fresh change of clothes before plopping down on the bed with a Percy Jackson book. I was ready to start volume three today.

I hadn't gotten far in the book before a surprise caused me to drop it. Fingers shaking, I read the line again.

_'"There they are." Grover nodded towards a couple of younger kids arguing in the bleachers, "Bianca and Nico Di Angelo."'_

Nico was mentioned in the book. This meant that he had met Percy Jackson. This meant that he had a super important part to play here.

I skimmed along the pages. According to the book, Nico was super-obsessed with Mythomagic when he was younger. He was seriously hyperactive, probably ADHD like most of the others, and got excited about nearly everything with questions for anything. His only family was his older sister Bianca, who decided to join the Hunters to be free of responsibility, so Nico didn't like the Hunters. He was brought to camp by Percy, but was never claimed and stood out in camp. He tried to follow when Bianca was assigned to join a dangerous quest, but Percy stopped him. Nico made him promise to keep Bianca safe, but he later came back with news that she was dead. Nico got mad at Percy but saved him when the skeletons attacked. He refused the statue that Bianca wanted him to take as his last gift and ran away, which was when Percy realized that he was the son of Hades.

I got so engrossed in reading about it that I nearly forgot that it was time for the campfire. I grabbed my sweater and headed out the door.

Nico was sitting in a ring of yellow grass further away from everyone else. I went over to join him. He didn't look up, acting like he was worried about something.

It wasn't yet dark when they lit the campfire. Behind us, the ice was melting faster, so thin that the ice shook slightly with each breath. A couple of Ares campers like Barth Slow were studying them while the remaining few ran to get Chiron.

Nico wrung his hands. The statues melted faster. The door of the Big House opened. He snapped his fingers. The ice cracked into pieces and fell away, leaving only a damp puddle and four very wet boys.

As you can guess, they got kitchen duty for their 'tricks'.

I would have loved the campfire, but Nico barely talked. He was so distant again, and kept acting like something was terribly wrong.

After I said goodnight to him, I got ready for bed and started to dream.


	10. Lily IX

Demigod Diaries - Lily IX

I saw Nico. He was sitting in a circle of dry grass in Bulls-Eye Clearing. He was writing with a pen in his little blue book. He looked sad.

Then he looked up, his eyes suddenly alert. He folded up his book and put both it and the pen into his coat pocket. He got up and ran to the edge of the clearing.

I seemed to move with him, drifting towards whatever he heard. His eyes widened. I touched him, and heard what he must have been hearing. A weak voice saying barely above a whisper _"Aagh! I... I can't!" with noises as if someone were gasping for breath. "The... the water. I've got to get... get..."_

Nico ran forward. I floated alongside him. Then I saw what he was running to. It was me. Same black hair, same blue eyes, same klutzy armor, only... prettier. Her —my— hair was smoother, like I —she— had just taken a shower instead of running around. Her —my— clothes and face didn't have any grass or dirt on it and looked clean and smooth. Even the armor looked cute.

Nico kneeled down and said "Can you hear me? Are you awake?" he shook the dream-me-only-prettier lightly and asked again.

The dream-me-only-prettier mumbled "The water." and Nico half-carried her —me— to the water.

The dream faded into a cave, I saw a boy sitting in front of a fire. It took me a moment to notice it was Nico. He looked quite different. His hair wasn't that messy (though it was pretty dusty), his aviator jacket looked new and was obviously too big, and his jeans looked new too (although it was pretty dirty and ripped a little on one knee), but what was really different was that angry expression he had. He looked so mad, but also very wild and not in control. I realized I was watching him at a time when he was younger than I was now.

He was throwing cards into the fire. _"Useless."_ he said. _"I can't believe I ever liked this stuff."_ I realized that they were Mythomagic cards. So that's what happened to them!

_"I've failed,"_ he continued. _"There's no way to get her back."_

_"An exchange."_ said an invisible voice. _" A soul for a soul." _

Nico turned towards me, but of course he couldn't see me. A tear traced down his cheek. _"Very well. You have a plan?"_.

Suddenly, we were somewhere foggy and I could see Nico with his sword drawn facing someone who had to be Percy Jackson. He yelled to him _"You? Why would I want YOU? Bianca's soul is worth a thousand of yours!"_

The dream faded, and I saw young-dream-Nico again, only he didn't look so mad now. He was walking with Percy Jackson in front of him.

Then young-dream-Nico stopped. Three bat-ladies who might have been called Furies lighted down.

_"Mrs Dodds."_ said Percy Jackson.

Young-dream-Nico nodded and said to the furies _"I have done what my father asked. Take us to the palace."_

Percy looked startled. _"Wait a second, Nico. What do you-"_ he began.

_"I'm afraid this is my new lead, Percy. My father promised me information about my family, but he wants to see you before we try the river. I'm sorry."_

_"You TRICKED me?"_ Percy Jackson lunged at young-dream-Nico but two Furies caught him and flew him into the air.

It was as if someone had pressed a fast-forward button one my dream. Suddenly, we were in a dark, dreary throne room with who must have been Hades in the chair. He smiled. _"You are spirited. I'll give you credit for that. Have fun in my dungeon. We'll check on you again in - oh, fifty or sixty years."_ then the dream went fuzzy.

It felt black, but I heard a voice whisper _"Percy!"_ When the light had returned, I saw Percy Jackson with the edge of his sword pinning young-dream-Nico to the floor by the end of his throat. Young-dream-Nico tried to say something, but he was choking against the sword. Percy looked so angry that I wondered if he was ever gonna let young-dream-Nico go.

The dream went fuzzy again and I saw a wooden floor, or maybe it was a wooden ceiling. Nico was nowhere in sight.

_Wait, this is my cabin. So I'm awake. Oh._

Well, that dream made it impossible for me to sleep. I kept trying, it was too unsettling to think about my dream. It seemed like Nico Di Angelo would do anything to get what he wants, even if it involved killing a hero like Percy. Still, he had saved me merely because he heard I was in trouble.

I needed a break. I needed to read.

I considered taking out more Percy Jackson books, but on the way to my cupboard I tripped and fell.

Luckily, no one had been there to see it. I picked up the thing that had caused me to fall. It was Nico's little blue book. He must have left it behind when all his things spilled out from his jacket. Maybe this was what he was so worried about. I shouldn't have, but I couldn't resist opening a few pages. The first page bore a pen drawing of Nico, and it looked exactly like him. Except younger and chubbier. The next page had fancy handwriting. It said "This is the Super Private Journal of Nico Di Angelo, Son of Hades. Keep Out!"


	11. Lily X

**Demigod Diaries - Lily X**

It was Nico's diary. I should have just closed the book right then, I mean, he stated the threat right there! But I was so curious. I really couldn't help it.

PAGE 1 (Monday):

_Learned how to shadow travel. Fell asleep for a week. Try again tomorrow. Chased by a minotaur._

Well… that's a very short entry.

SAME PAGE NEXT DAY (Tuesday):

_Managed to teleport to Los Angelos. Kept running into walls._

Weird.

SAME PAGE NEXT DAY (Wednesday):

_Accidentally came to China. Try again after a nap_.

SAME PAGE NEXT DAY (Thursday):

_Got an idea. Need to get to Percy. Back in China._

Huh?

SAME PAGE NEXT DAY (Friday):

_Got to Percy. Thinking about it. Eat blue birthday cake._

SAME PAGE NEXT DAY (Saturday):

_Idea: Percy bathe in Styx & get invulnerable._

Strange. Must read on

PAGE 2 (Sunday):

_Got message from father. New lead. Percy will be mad. _

What? What message?

SAME PAGE NEXT DAY (Monday):

_Percy still isn't sure. Running out of time._

For what? Running out of time for what?

SAME PAGE NEXT DAY (Tuesday):

_Percy says yes. Sleepy. Shadow traveled. Waiting for Grover._

PAGE 3 (Tuesday):

_Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Father captured Percy!_

Wait... what?

CONTINUED:

_Father promised! He promised! He promised! No fair!_

CONTINUED:

_Can I leave my room now?_

Um... room?

SAME PAGE NEXT DAY (Wednesday):

_Rescued Percy. He tried to kill me. I'm sleepy._

HE TRIED TO KILL YOU?!

CONTINUED:

_Doesn't trust me anymore. Father hates me._

SAME PAGE NEXT DAY (Thursday):

_Spoke to mom. Dad is very mad._

SAME PAGE NEXT DAY (Friday):

_Dad won't listen. Tried to blast me. Melted a tree._

SAME PAGE NEXT DAY (Saturday):

_Demeter tried to get me to do farming._

I flipped through the book. Nico drew quite a few pictures. Pictures of him, pictures of Bianca, pictures of Percy, pictures of some random girl...

PAGE AFTER PICTURE OF RANDOM GIRL (Wednesday):

_They gave me such a hard time. The lares are mad that I can hold them. People call me the 'Ambassador of Pluto'. Now I have to wear a toga. _

Underneath was a drawing of himself in a black toga.

NEXT PAGE (Thursday):

_Hazel got admitted. Luckily. Thanks dad, just this once._

I started skimming it. Stop.

RANDOM PAGE IN MIDDLE (Monday):

_Percy showed up at Camp Jupiter! And he barely recognizes me! He only knows he knows me._

SAME PAGE NEXT DAY (Tuesday):

_Must. Not. Tell. Them. Who. He. Is. _

CONTINUED:

_I hate wearing this toga._

He looked so funny!

Skip. Skip. Skip.

RANDOM PAGE (day not stated):

_Trapped in a jar. Can't breathe._

What?!

SAME PAGE NEXT DAY (apparently seven days later):

_Missed the battle. Embarrassing._

CONTINUED:

_Percy wants to strangle me._

CONTINUED:

_Lost Percy & Annabeth in a black hole._

WHAT?!

PAGE BEFORE PREVIOUS RANDOM PAGE (day not stated):

_Stuck in Tartarus! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !_

Tartarus!

There was a very messy picture of Nico gasping for breath underneath.

Calm down. Breathe. Meditate. Sleep.

Aaaaaaaaggggghhhhh!


	12. Lily XI

**Demigod Diaries - Skye XI**

Breathe. Don't think about reading Nico's diary. Don't think about how he went to Tartarus. Don't think about how your alarm clock is ringing.

Wait, WHAT?

_Man, I'm so dead._

_Half an hour before breakfast. _

Brush teeth. Shower. Put on clothes. Wear sweater. Jump into shoes.

_Twenty-five more minutes. _

It's a good thing I checked before leaving the cabin. My shoelaces still untied. My sweater inside out. My pajama top still on. My trouser leg scrunched up. My hair like a rat's nest. My ears filled with suds.

I changed my shirt and combed the suds out of my hair and ears. Now it just looks like I've run a hundred miles through an annoyed wind. Not that bad.

_Twenty minutes._

Tie shoelaces. Grab sweater. Smooth out jeans.

Wait, we have inspection today. Got to clean my cabin. And only twenty minutes left before breakfast.

Make bed. Organize statues. Throw stuff in closet. Hide Nico's Diary under pillow. Candy wrappers? Sweep under carpet. Spray FreshFun room freshener.

_Fifteen minutes. _

Now... Run?

_Eleven minutes._ Almost there.

Wait, we have weapon-training today. I need to go back and get my sword.

_Ten minutes._ Got to hurry.

I ran back to my cabin. My bronze sword was on the table. Nothing much, but maybe I'll get a new one soon.

_Six minutes._ Hurry.

I practically flew to the dining pavilion. There's my seat. Fire's not lit yet. Phew!

I jumped onto my chair. Freshened, cleaned, packed, run, with two minutes to spare!

I let my cheeks change back to it's ordinary color while I searched for Nico. He was at the Hades table, alone as usual. Watching that made me feel sorry for him. I really wished I had someone else in my cabin too.

After breakfast, I lost sight of him when I accidentally got tangled with the Hermes bunch. I really wanted to find him and find out more about his past. His diary raised more questions than it answered.

I heard the noise of mocking laughter and, unfortunately, where Nico was there was always someone teasing and laughing at him.

I followed the sound and got to the peak in time to see the Ares gang push Nico of the cliff.


	13. Lily XII

**Demigod Diaries - Lily XII**

By the time I got to the edge, the gang had decided I wasn't worth playing around with.

Time was in slow-motion. Nico was falling slowly towards the rough waves lashing at the sharp rocks on the long beach below.

The first thing I thought was that I could jump over the edge and try to save him, but that seemed like suicide. Still it wasn't much different from bungee-jumping without a cord.

Then I figured that Nico was highly capable of saving himself, until I saw his face and noted that he was unconscious.

No time to get help. I didn't think about what had happened until after I put Plan A into action. I jumped.

For some reason, I fell faster than Nico and caught up in time to throw my arms around his neck before I guided the water to cushion our fall.

It wasn't enough.

We hit the waves. Nico's head banged against one of the rocks and the water turned pink. A huge wave spread us apart.

I can now say that I am truly thankful to Chiron for making us do those crazy activities.

But after the wave hit me, I couldn't find Nico anymore. I was struggling to stay afloat and keep a lookout for him at the same time.

Something touched my foot. I tensed, and realized that it was a dolphin. It nuzzled my foot then urged me to hold on to it's dorsal fin.

It shot through the water with ease, and I couldn't let go because my hands had already automatically activated a "scared" command inside me to "hold on tight with all your might!"

Then I saw the palace. It was a beautiful place like a super-expensive hotel/mansion decorated with extra gold and seashells.

The golden gates opened as the dolphin brought me in. If not for the water, my hands would have been clammy with sweat.

It stopped in what looked like a throne room. On the throne sat my father, but he was almost nothing like what I'd expected. The man had deep-bluish-black hair like mine, but he was two meters tall while was always the shorty. He had a slight tan, though I was fairly, well, fair. And he wore a palm-tree patterned multicolor T-shirt, a pair of thick khaki shorts, a pair of seashell patterned slippers.

Poseidon took off his huge dark sunglasses. He had the same sea-green eyes, but his iris seemed to spin with greens and blues like a soapy bubble.

"Lily." he said nicely in a smooth booming voice. "My little girl, you've come at last."

I sank to one knee. "Father."

He smiled, and his eyes crinkled at the edges like my grandma's used to. "I hope you have been having fun at Camp Half-Blood?"

I nodded.

"Then I'm happy too. Is there anything you wanted to tell me?"

Suddenly I felt blood rushing towards my ears. There were a million things I wanted to say to him. Starting from "No, father." to "This is awesome!" to "Why didn't you claim me earlier?" to "You are a terrible father!" to "You speaking to me, POSEIDON?"

Instead, I said "Tomorrow's my birthday."

I don't know where that came from. I hadn't even remembered that the next day was my birthday until that moment. I certainly wasn't planning to say that to my father.

But my father just laughed. "Straight to the point, aren't you? Very well, I give you your birthday present." and he threw something to me. I somehow managed to catch it. It was a coin. It was so shiny and probably made of pure gold, on one side there was a sword stamped on it. On the other, a trident like the bronze one beside his throne.

Most people would say "That's it? That's all I get for my thirteenth birthday? A coin?" but I love collecting coins. I keep a coin album with as many different types of coins as possible.

"I love it! Thanks dad!" I said. He looked slightly surprised, but he opened his arms for a hug. He felt warm and smelt like the ocean, which made me realize for the first time that I was actually breathing and talking normally under the water.

Poseidon smiled and let me go. "Now," he said "we should-" but he was cut off when the door to the throne room flew open.

"Dad! Your game room is the coolest! I can't believe you've actually got..." his voice dwindled off.

I realized I was staring at Percy Jackson. He was wiggling his fingers and shooting our father a nervous glance.

"Yes, ahem." said Poseidon, "Well, Percy, this is Lily Whisperer. Lily, this is-"

"Percy Jackson. Yes, I know." I looked at him. After reading all of the Percy Jackson Series, I kept feeling worried that I'll get the facts wrong. "Is it true that you gave up your chance to be immortal in exchange for a better future for demigod children? I mean, I can hardly believe you're my half-brother, you're practically my hero!"

Percy laughed. "Gods. Me, a hero? But I accept that. I've heard it enough at Camp Half-Blood."

That reminded me why I was here in the first place. "Oh no." I said, the blood draining from my face. "Nico. Father, I have to find him! He's unconscious out there somewhere in the water and he's bleeding! I've got to-"

"Wait." said Percy. "Nico Di Angelo? He's at Camp Half-Blood?"

I stared at Nico, forgetting that Percy knew him for a very long time, but I didn't have enough time to process that. "Yeah, and he's unconscious and some kids pushed him off the cliff so now we need to rescue him! Thanks for the coin, dad, but we really need to go. Nice knowing you."

Father looked grim. "Alright. Percy, save your friend and stay at Camp Half-Blood for the rest of the year."

Percy's eyes widened. "But I was supposed to stay with you this week! Besides, I just beat a new level!"

Poseidon shook his head. "Your destiny does not lie under the sea, son. Return to camp or return to school."

That seemed to do it. Percy spun round and took my hand, pulling me along as we swam further and further away from the golden seashell palace.

As we kicked away, Percy seemed anxious to talk. "So," he started cautiously. "You know Nico Di Angelo?"

"Kinda'." I said, all the information flooding back to me. "He saved me from a fatal watchamacalit scorpion bite last week. Then he showed up during the thunderstorm and I felt kinda attached to him. I've sorta been stalking him."

Percy laughed. "If my mom's book was that accurate, then you probably know quite bit about our history together. We were absolutely best buds. Always trying to kill each other. Great, huh?"

I felt a little uneasy. He was obviously making a pun, but I wasn't sure whether he was lying about the 'always trying to kill each other' part.

"Um..." I was nervous. "So... it's true that Nico got you captured by Hades and then almost got killed by you when he tried to rescue you?" I should have chosen my words more carefully, but Percy smiled.

"Yeah."

"Oh."

We reached the bay and started looking for Nico. For a long time, I felt scared that we had lost him, then Percy pulled him out of the water and the lump on my throat disappeared, then I saw his condition and it came back. His eyes were closed still, his limbs hung limply, his clothes were tie-dyed pinkish, he had several scrapes all over, his arm had a deep cut in it, his head had a gnash at the forehead, his foot hung at an odd angle.

Percy and I brought him to the beach and lay him on a rock. Percy put a hand to his chest and a stream of slightly pinky saltwater flowed from Nico's mouth. Nico sat up slightly and coughed.

I had never been so happy to see someone cough.

He looked around and groaned. "What... happened?" he asked weakly.

Percy grinned. "According to her, you got pushed off the cliff while you were unconscious and knocked and scraped yourself in several places. We saved you from drowning too."

Nico looked confused, he held his head with his hand and turned wearily. He jumped slightly when he caught sight of Percy, but winced and just leaned forward.

When he moved his hand away and leaned against the cliff, the gnash on his forehead was gone. Percy blinked, and I was stunned, but he simply put his hand on the scrape of his arm and it too disappeared. He lifted his leg up and twisted it around before it clicked back into the right position.

After some staring from us and some groaning from him, I helped him up and we started walking towards the line where the beach started to climb the cliff. Percy looked a bit stunned, but followed us and muttered "Interesting, the last person to try that... he almost... Jason got... Jason almost got a Stygian sword up his nose. Touching Nico, he should come with a warning sticker about that."

Well, when we got back, Percy headed towards the Poseidon cabin while I tolled Nico towards Cabin Thirteen. It was dark and dreary, but Nico didn't want to go inside anyway, we sat at the steps outside.

As we watched the people walk by, I said "Hey Nico?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you joining the Sword-Fighting Competition?"

Nico sighed, "Probably not. I want to, but-"

Barth Slow, now official leader of the Ares Cabin, yelled "I hope you're not gonna challenge me on the sword field. I don't wanna fall asleep out there! No wait, of course you won't. You're too scared to even join!"

Nico was closing his eyes and gritted his teeth.

"It'll give you a chance to prove them wrong." I coaxed.

Nico didn't say anything. Then he nodded and looked up at me with those intimidating black eyes of his.

"I'm in."


	14. Lily XIII

**Demigod Diaries - Lily XIII**

I left Nico at his cabin and went to mine. I stepped in, and Percy was studying my Mythomagic figurines with interest. He laughed a little when he saw me. "Heh, I never knew you liked that kid's game."

I blushed. He was right. I was way too old for Mythomagic.

Later, we started off towards the sword-fighting arena. Luckily, Percy had reminded me to get my sword. My sword wasn't much, It was just plain bronze, even though bronze was pretty valuable.

Only when we got to the arena did it occur to me that Percy had forgotten to bring his own.

"Um... Percy?" I called.

Percy had been talking to a guy from another cabin. "Yeah?"

"I think you forgot to bring your sword."

He grinned. "Did I? Think harder."

I tried. Something about his expression, challenging and amusing, made me feel sure that I was supposed to know the answer. What did the book say about Percy's sword again? Something about a pen? Yes, that was it. I could remember it clearly now. Percy had a magical pen called _Anaklusmos_, but he usually called it Riptide, which changed from a sword to a pen and back just by capping and uncapping it. Celestial Bronze too, no fair.

Percy could tell when I had figured it out. He took out his ballpoint pen and uncapped it. The pen grew into a meter long glowing sword. Show-off.

I scanned the bunch for Nico. I didn't see him. I was about charge the crowd to find him when there was a clop-clopping of hooves on the ground.

Chiron emerged from the entrance. He eyed us all in an order to stay silent then faced the crowd as a whole.

"Hello, campers. Hope you all have been having a good day. Right now what I want you to do is find a partner within your own cabin. Go on. And if you're the odd one out, just stand aside."

Poor Nico, he wouldn't have anyone to partner with.

Percy uncapped his blade. He nodded. "Looks like I'm with you." he said. I nodded back absently, and he got the message. As he scouted a safe place to spar, I looked towards where the left-outs were hanging around.

Besides Nico, a girl from the Aphrodite cabin (can't remember her name), something Soil from the Demeter cabin (honestly, I'm sure Soil is his last name), and my used-to-be-would-be friend Grace Rev.

Chiron nodded in their direction.

"Well, now I would like you to either practice sparring or appoint a teacher to learn some new moves." then he shoed us off and headed towards the odd-ones-out.

"Lily." called Percy. "I found a good place to practice."

I had almost forgotten what we were supposed to do. I followed him, but my eyes were still on Nico.

Chiron trotted towards the odd-ones-out. "Ah, let's see. Grace, why don't you go with-"

"I'll go with Edward/Jasmine!" said Edward Soil (I guess) and Jasmine from Aphrodite at the exact same time.

Chiron nodded. "Very well then."

"Guess I'm with you." said Nico, seeming to jump out of the shadows.

Grace looked shocked, then stared at Chiron. "Oh, I don't want to go with HIM." she said, pointing at Nico. "I want a challenge! Someone who would put my sword skills to the test!"

Chiron hardly looked at her. "In that case, I'm sure you would enjoy sparring with him."

Grace looked ready to throw a little girl's fit. "But he's so scrawny! He can't defend himself, much less fight!"

Nico had been standing by quietly. Without his jacket, he certainly did look very scrawny. Even though I wouldn't want to take a person like that in a fight, he didn't look like someone who was good with a sword.

Still, I could tell he didn't approve of what Grace had just said. His fingers danced around the hilt of his sword. Once in a while, he winced and pulled his hand back, as if he needed to make a conscious effort not to attack her.

Chiron frowned. "As a sword-fighter, you must challenge many different opponents. If you find him too easy... well, perhaps we'll change the arrangement. But for now, he is your partner. Now go, spar, challenge."

Grace moaned. "It isn't going to be much of a challenge if-"

Nico drew his sword, disarmed her, backed her up to the wall and forced the point of his Stygian sword beneath her neck within the matter of two seconds.

Grace stumbled and grasped at the wall.

Nico fixed her with a cool gaze. "Too easy? Think first, talk later. Let's find out who's really too easy." and with that, he stood down and sheathed his blade.

Grace gulped and followed him to the other side of the arena.

Percy shook my shoulders. "Earth to Lily. Are you listening?"

I shook my head, feeling sort of bad for getting distracted. "Uh... sorry. What were you saying?"

He raised an eyebrow. "I was just saying that we should definitely spar, not tutor."

"Um... no." I said, shaking my head. "You're definitely going to beat me. Everyone does. I'll feel safer if we just... tutor. Plus, you got the better sword."

Percy grunted. "Nah. I feel like actually beating someone in a match for a change. Besides, it's not my fault about the sword thing."

I absentmindedly put my hand into my pocket. The gold coin was still there. Until that moment, I had forgotten about it. An idea came to my head. I was brilliant at tossing and manipulating coins, why not take a gamble?

I slipped out my gold coin and held my palm open for Percy to see. "How 'bout we take a chance? Heads, er, sword, we tutor. Otherwise, we spar."

Percy stared at the coin. "That's the mark of Poseidon," he said, pointing at the trident, "Where did you get that?"

I blushed, but I told him about my exchange with father before he came in. Then I brought the matter back to the toss, "Do we have deal? It's not so serious, but swear on the River Styx. I do, if you do."

Percy smiled. "Ah, fine. It's not like I have much to lose. I swear on the River Styx to accept the terms exactly as you have described them."

My palm was sweaty as I studied the coin, getting used to the balance and the weight.

Nearby, Philip got distracted by something and took a blow to the stomach. I followed his gaze and saw Grace and Nico.

They were sparring, and, quick as ever, Grace's blade twisted out of her hand and clattered to the ground. "

Aw!" whined Grace, though she sounded quite happy. "That was the seventeenth time you beat me! Can't you cut me some slack?"

Nico faced her with a leveled expression. "I told you, hold your sword lower and closer to you."

"Like this?" she asked, obviously doing it wrong. Grace was never like that.

"No. Hold it lower."

"Like this?"

"Too low."

"Can't you show me?" she whined. I realized what she was doing. She was trying to get Nico to put his arms around, or at least touch, her. She was trying to flirt with him.

"Sure." he said nonlatchantly. Then held his own sword with two hands in front of him. "There. Like that."

Grace looked overwhelmed. "But... " she trailed off when she saw his stern expression. "Like this?" she asked once again, tilting the sword awkwardly.

"_NO_." sighed Nico, putting his hand to his head in experation. "Honestly, are you so dense that it you can't simply hold a sword? Really, it's far too bad. "

Grace went red. She tilted her sword back. "Like this?"

Nico nodded and assumed his fighting stance.

"Hello? Lily? Are you going to throw that coin or not?" said Percy. I remembered what I was doing and simply tossed the coin.

It flew above my head spun in mid-air. I could see that it was a definite heads, or sword, until it began falling and changed into a sword.

The sword was half a meter long and just like in the image on the coin. It was some sort of magic gold, that I was sure of, and it was balanced so perfectly that I hardly felt it's weight as it dropped onto my hand.

Percy stared at it in awe. Then he said "Father gave you an Imperial Gold weapon? No way!"

Imperial gold? Awesome. I was itching to try out the weapon for myself.

"Okay." said Percy "Let's spar."

"It landed on heads."

"That sword is obviously not heads, now come on!"

I had to admit, he did have a point. And a very sharp celestial bronze point at that.

We sparred. I lost almost immediately, but my sword was simply amazing! It was so lightweight and everything. Shame it couldn't magically defeat people in sword-fighting matches.

Percy straightened up after the third match, which took longer. "Good job. I think we're done. See ya." then he left the arena.

Over at the corner, I heard Nico say sarcastically "Yeah, like that. So if I hadn't anticipated it, and if I was incredibly slow and dim-witted, you could twist the sword right out of your opponent's hand, assuming they stay as still as statues for you or fall asleep. Otherwise, good job."

Grace looked hurt. But she just smiled and said "Thanks!" Nico rolled his eyes at her.

Philip seemed seriously distracted.

It occurred to me that those two were not exactly the friends I wanted. Sure, we've had some fun together, but many times I had cried and they'd made me feel worse. Right now, watching as Grace flirted ridiculously and Philip scanned him with jealousy, I decided I was much safer with Percy Jackson and Nico.

Nico threw up his hands. "Fine. We're done." then he started to walk away.

"What!" said Grace (the high, flirty voice was gone) "I'll come with you!"

"No. I'm going with Lily." he said casually. He looked over his shoulder and gave me his usual creepy smile. I felt so happy that he wanted to come with me that I didn't even get the shiver.

"Meet me at the cliff, two hours!" he called.

"Yeah." I murmured. Then I tried again. "Yeah!"


	15. Lily XIV

**Demigod Diaries - Lily XIV**

I was worried that I would lose my precious coin, and then Percy assured me that the Mark of Poseidon would always follow me. I hoped that was a good thing.

I went back to change and shower first. My clothes looked gross. They were soaked in sweat from standing around in the hot arena all this time.

I decided to have a look at another book. Maybe Battle Of The Labyrinth?

Later, since I had no luck with finding the book, I had another look at Nico's diary.

BLANK PAGE:

Nothing here, it's blank

4 PAGES BEFORE PREVIOUS (Sunday):

_Wondering whether to return to Camp Half-Blood. Haven't seen Percy yet. _

CONTINUED:

_Saw a girl at camp. Daughter of Poseidon. Scorpion bit her. Helped her to the river. _

SAME PAGE NEXT DAY (Monday):

_Don't know what girl's name is. She's cute. Chased by Drakon. _

CONTINUED:

_Should I go back? She probably hates me. _

SAME PAGE NEXT DAY (Tuesday):

_Went back in a dark storm. Visited her. Told her my name. _

Ha! So he did come to my cabin on purpose!

SAME PAGE NEXT DAY (Wednesday)

Did camp training today. Boring stuff again. Set Ares jerks on fire.

Boring?

SAME PAGE NEXT DAY (Thursday):

_Got pranked by Hecate girls. Froze her. Will be a sword-fighting competition in a month._

I thought I was starting to get a wisp of things, but somehow my biggest interest was that Nico had called me cute.

Then I looked at my watch and headed to the cliff.

When I got there, I heard a soft and steady murmur. Ducking behind a bush, I saw Nico Di Angelo sitting on the ground.

He had drawn an amazingly perfect circle in the dirt around him with a puddle of red in front of him. His lips moved quickly, murmuring a chant that was so quiet I could barely hear. I remember that eventually I figured out he was saying a string of Ancient Greek words. I think it was something like "Let the Ancient rites take place. Let the dead rise and taste again. Let the souls from the land of the dead hear my cry. Approach the seeker, for I will will you to. May the voice in the earth witness my calling and grovel towards me. Accept my offering. Let the ancient rites take place..."

Anyway, I was watching him as those misty shapes that had appeared at his feet in my cabin so long ago that it felt like forever, started oozing around the edges of the circle, but they couldn't enter. I could feel the negative magic spreading from him.

Nico chanted faster and faster, eyeing the spirits worriedly, but after awhile his fear seemed to turn to anger.

Suddenly, he stood up and thrust his sword into the ground. He yelled "Bianca Di Angelo, show yourself!"

A small dark cloud appeared, but flashes of lighting blasted it away.

He cussed in Ancient Greek. Something like "O Zeu kai alloi theoi!"

A huge crack winded from his sword and opened. The thunder cloud came back, attempting to resist the lightning. Spirits rose from the crack, trying to enter his circle.

A flash of lightning struck the puddle, but this one came from his cloud. The red liquid sloshed and evaporated. A misty shape was made, but it seemed to struggle for freedom.

"No!" shouted Nico. He clenched his fist and ever-shifting mist froze in the shape of a girl. She had a long braid, a jacket, some jeans I think, a cap sideways on her head, and something strung over her shoulder.

Nico relaxed his hand. Frost swept from the statue. It seemed to drain of it's icy properties as the color returned. She was definitely wearing jeans and a silver jacket, with the green cap on her head. The things strung over her shoulder were a bow and a quiver of arrows.

The girl looked familiar. I realized I'd seen her in Nico's diary.

She smiled. "Hello Nico."

Nico ran forward and threw his arms around her. Tears streamed down his cheeks. "Bianca." he said.

Bianca held him close, then gently pushed him away and held him at arms length. "You've grown so tall."

Nico wiped his eyes. I was surprised they weren't frozen, I was already shivering. "Bianca, I've missed you. Why did you have to go away?" he asked, choking back sobs.

Bianca smiled warmly. "You know that I had to. It's no fun just sitting around all day without a purpose. I'm trying for the Isles of the Blest. Now, isn't there another reason you called me here?"

Nico was definitely crying now but he nodded. "I... I want to leave Camp Half-Blood. I don't fit in here. I've never fit in here. I wanna leave." he rubbed his eyes. "It's never worth it."

Bianca patted him gently on the back. "Nico, that's not true. It was worth it, wasn't it?"

"Says who?" he yelled, not really crying anymore. "Leo and Piper and Jason haven't come back. Hazel and Frank are at Camp Jupiter. Annabeth barely acknowledges me. Lily... Lily won't like me after she finds out what I did." he started crying again.

I was a bit confused, wondering what it was that I was supposed to hate him for.

Bianca put a hand in his shoulder and gave him a cheeky smile. "And what about Percy?" she asked.

He shot her a fierce look. "Percy ignores me. He has all his own friends now. He doesn't need me."

"Then talk to him. Or ignore him. Whichever one you want."

Nico went back to crying.

"None of them would talk to me after they find out what I did!" he yelled. I tensed, worried that someone else might hear. "They'll all hate me!"

Bianca smiled sympathetically. "And what have you done that's so horrible?" she asked, though her expression and the tone of her voice made me think that she probably knew.

Nico kneeled over. His tears dripped into the dirt. He seemed to be straining his arms. It was as if it was hard not to collapse onto the ground. "I'm... I'm a spy. I've been spying for the Romans." he looked heartbroken. "I've told them when to invade Camp Half-Blood. I've been building a tunnel straight into the heart! I've showed them the weakest defenses and the way around the border. The camp is going to burn and it's all my fault."

I was shocked. Nico, a spy? It couldn't be. He wasn't evil. He was a hero. He...

_'I'm stuck in Tartarus!'_

Could it be possible? Could Nico Di Angelo actually be... a spy?

No. He wasn't like that. He would never do that. He said it himself, he likes me.

Why did my heart flutter when I that thought appear?

Bianca shook her head with a slight "Tsk tsk." and sighed, although she was still smiling. "And I'm sure you know how to stop them?"

Nico closed his eyes. "I could. I couldn't stop them. They have Hazel. They'll hurt her. " he crumpled onto the ground. "Everyone will hate me."

For some reason, I felt like punching Hazel in the face, and I didn't even know who she was.

But even though it probably wasn't her fault, I felt like it was. This girl just had to go and get captured. So now Nico was forced to be a spy.

Her name sounded familiar, though. I wondered where I had heard of her.

Bianca brushed his hair away. "Well, you'll have to do something. What about your friends here at Camp Half-Blood? Chiron isn't bad. And then there's Percy and Annabeth. And Jason, Piper and Leo love this place. And what about that girl you like? ...Lily, is it?"

She had propped Nico upright by now, and was holding his back. Nico had put his face in his hands, but now he looked up and gave her another fierce look.

Bianca smiled. "Of course. But anyway, they're your friends. You should try harder. You know how to stop them. Go on. Try!"

Nico spun round and lashed out at her, missing her chest by a few inches. "What is it worth? At least at Camp Jupiter they respect me. There, I'm the Ambassador of Pluto. Here, I'm the little weirdo of Cabin Thirteen. Why should I care?!" he was crying again.

"Nico, listen to me. Sometimes you need to think harder. You're-"

"Why should I listen to you?!" he cried. This time, Bianca had to side-step a bit to avoid him. "You died trying to save everyone! You joined the hunters to get rid of me! You left me without friends here, and now you've been reborn, so I can't even talk to you more than thrice a year! Stop being that bossy to me, cause you're not my big sister anymore!"

Nico managed to slap Bianca this time. She took the blow in a shield stance then used his wrist to judo-flip him. As his head slammed on the rocks, he cried out. Bianca let go when he dripped to the earth. She backed away.

"Nico, I'm... I'm so sorry, I... I didn't... didn't mean to..." she spluttered. For the first time since I saw her, she was acting more like an actual human being than a wise spirit.

Nico held his head. The swelling went down. He looked away warily. "You've been practicing."

Bianca looked uneasy. "Yeah. I got bored."

"A huge growth of strength."

"I guess so."

"Recently."

"What's your point?"

"You've been somewhere else recently. In a new body. But the spirit of Bianca has been working out."

Bianca went slightly red. "It doesn't matter."

"Of course it matters."

"More than the invasion you're about to let loose on Camp Half-Blood?"

Nico hung his head. "No."

"I didn't think so. What are you going to do about it?"

He looked back a little. For a moment, I wondered if he had seen me. "Leave."

Bianca was becoming the wise spirit again. She laughed a little. "Run away? Again?"

Nico wiped away a tear angrily. "I'll stay until the sword-fighting competition. Just to make Lily happy. But then I'm leaving. I can't take it anymore."

Bianca nodded sadly. She closed her eyes and dissolved into mist. Nico pulled his sword from the ground and sheathed it.

I wasn't sure if I should have gotten up and gone over to him right then. He sighed and started scribbling in the dirt. I watched.

"Thanks dad." he mumbled, though I assume it was sarcasm. "You let Bianca go into a new life and Hazel die. Now you're making me suffer. You're a terrible dad."

He sat back and sighed. "I suppose I don't blame you for torturing us. Spending so much time with dead people, even I feel like torturing someone once in a while. I just wish you could keep that cursed Aphrodite back in line." He stared up at the sky. "You hear that Aphrodite? Stay out of my life!"

The sky rumbled a bit. "Yeah, yeah." he muttered.

He looked around. "Why can't you let mom come back? Why did you have to stick me with Persephone?"

A ripple passed through the grass around him. "Oh no you don't." he said, scrambling to his feet. "Not gonna get turned into a dandelion again. Not a corn plant, no marigolds, no barley, no cereal either. Don't touch me." he backed up to the edge of the cliff.

Flowers sprouted everywhere. Nico looked alarmed. "No mushrooms. Please. Just leave me alone!"

I couldn't stand it. I stood up. "Hi! Um... what are you doing?"

Nico stood normally, embarrassed. "I... uh... just talking with my stepmother. Praying. Whatever." he forced a smile at me. "Come to talk about the competition?" he said, hurriedly wiping away his message with his foot.

I nodded eagerly, getting down next to him. "This could change everyone's view of you. When you win the competition, you'll be the hero of Camp Half-Blood."

I couldn't hear him, but I was sure he said "Again."

I pressed on. "People will see you as impressive. You've got to do it. It's you're chance to prove you're not just the child of Hades."

He looked uneasy. "Lily, I don't know..."

"You said yes before."

"Yeah, but-"

"Swear by the River Styx. Promise me."

"Lily, I-"

"Promise." I insisted.

He looked at me with that cool glance if his. I felt a but worried that I was frozen in time or turned into an ice statue.

"I swear by the River Styx."

I smiled. "I'm happy with that."


	16. Lily XV

**Demigod Diaries - Lily XV**

Nico and I walked back to camp, I tried not to think about what I had just heard. Of course, I was probably gonna be thinking about it for the rest of the day, but for now I just wanted to have a nice and casual talk with Nico.

"So, um, what was it that you were writing?" I asked.

Nico looked a bit startled. "What? Oh. Um... Nothing. Just practicing my Latin for the-" he caught himself. "Uh... for when I need it."

He had caught himself in time, but I had a feeling he had been about to say "Invasion".

I felt bad about it and tried to change the subject. "You know Latin?"

That was a genuine question. Most demigods know Ancient Greek. Almost all of us are from America, so we speak English. One or two of us know other languages.

Nico nodded. "Yeah, I speak Latin."

I stared. "So you know Latin as well as and Ancient Greek? And Greek too?"

He shrugged. "Yeah."

"Plus English. No fair, that's four languages, and it's hard for me to learn two!"

He smiled. "Eight actually. I know French, Italian, German and Chinese too."

I was a little taken aback. But then I elbowed him a little. "Way no fair!"

He flinched when I touched him, and nodded numbly, rubbing his arm as if I had shocked him or burned him.

When we got back to the top of the hill, the same hill where I had almost had my first proper conversation with him, I looked down at the sounds of dinner and realized that once again I did not feel like going back down.

Nico sat down and crossed his legs again. "I haven't been completely honest with you."

That's and understatement, I thought.

"It's just-" he sighed. "I know what you did. I shouldn't have, but I figured it out. I took it back. Sorry."

I had no idea what he was talking about.

"Skye. I-" he hesitated, like he still wasn't sure whether he should say the words. "I'm sorry. I have to. You'll never understand." he choked back a sob. "Maybe one day you could meet Hazel. You two are so much alike."

I wanted to punch her in the face again.

"Yeah. It would be nice to meet your girlfriend." I said. I hope it didn't come out too sour.

Nico looked a little taken aback. "W-what? No. Um, Hazel isn't-"

"Hey, it's okay, I understand." I said. But I didn't.

Nico hid his face in his hands. I didn't know what to say.

The campers streamed from the dining pavilion, but this time we couldn't find a way to joke or smile.

I thought about what he had said. What _I_ had said. Was Hazel really his girlfriend? Probably. Whatever, _I_ didn't care. Then why did my heart try to punch her every time I thought of her?

Suddenly, Nico rolled aside and shot to his feet, whirling around in the process. An arrow embedded itself in the dirt next to me. I realized that it had been aimed for Nico.

An Ares kid strolled out from behind the bushes. Barth Slow, the leader of the Ares cabin.

He laughed. "What's the matter, Death Boy? Too scared to face me?" He held up his bow. "Behold!" he said mockingly. "Your evil arch nemesis, thin air!" he laughed and took aim.

Too late, I realized what was happening. The arrow shot pass me. I ducked, and it clipped off a lock of my long hair. It headed straight towards Nico's neck.

Nico thrust out his hand. The arrow deflected away. Barth jumped aside and shot another one, Nico expertly dodging them, one after the other.

Barth reached for an arrow, but they all crumbled to dust in his quiver. He cussed and whistled. Several arrows shot from the bushes. Nico deflected off two before the rest pinned him to the ground by his shirt.

Nico strained against them. He couldn't move his arms, couldn't draw his sword. The other Ares campers emerged from the bushes, laughing.

Barth grabbed Nico by the scruff of his neck. Nico struggled to escape from his grip, but he held firm.

Before he could protest, the Ares jerks had each grabbed one of his limbs, one seizing his sword, tied him up and dragged him off to the woods.

I followed them. I felt so useless. Only able to watch as they bullied him.

They made it to the lake. It looked so dangerously mysterious in the moonlight.

The jerk with Nico's sword lagged behind, complaining about how heavy it was. I didn't see how it could be so heavy. Nico managed it without much difficulty, and he wasn't exactly what you would call strong.

The jerks laughed and dumped Nico in the lake. He failed wildly and tried to untie his bonds but he started sinking. I could see the sharks swimming towards him.

Barth was laughing. He called out to the others that they should bring the sword over but Nico's sword appeared to be getting heavier.

I could hear the thoughts of the sharks. _"Yay! Yummy!"_

_"No!"_ I yelled in my mind, willing the sharks to hear me. _"Don't eat him! He's my friend!"_

_"Aww. But he's delicious!"_

I saw Nico struggling for air and trying to untie himself.

_"No! Um... but there are these guys up here you can eat! They're yummy! If you don't eat him, I'll push the others in for you!"_ I thought.

_"Really? But this guys right here!"_

Little bubbles were rising from Nico. He was running out of air, fast!

_"If you eat him, I won't give you these guys. There are a lot of them, and they're a lot bigger than this scrawny boy over here!"_ I called out.

The sharks seemed happy. _"Okay! We won't eat this boy! We'll eat big boys!"_ I wondered if that was a good thing.

_"Great!"_ I thought. _"Uh... Just wait here."_

The sharks were nodding eagerly as I jumped into the lake. Nico wasn't moving at the bottom. I hoped he hadn't died.

I pulled him up. He was so limp and definitely wasn't breathing. I popped my head above the water. Most of the Ares campers were struggling to drag the sword over. It had barely moved at all from when I had last seen them taking it. Only Barth was not clinging to it. He was tapping his foot impatiently and standing a little further away, beckoning them closer.

I pulled Nico ashore. His face was so deathly pale that I almost thought that he was dead. I shook him slightly, and his eyelids flickered. He moaned, opened his eyes, and sat up. Then he took a deep breath.

I was so relived that I almost hugged him.

Further back, Barth was complaining to his fellow jerks. "Just bring the sword over here already!"

One of the campers strained. "It's too heavy! It's hard to keep it from falling!"

"Then drop it!" Barth fumed

"We can't!" said another.

Nico's mouth twitched in amusement.

I wondered why they couldn't let go of the sword. Maybe Nico cursed it?

Barth sighed. "I'll take it."

He touched it and fell back with a scream. His hand was steaming.

The other jerks fell too, under the weight if the sword. They couldn't let go.

Nico got up and walked over. He picked up the sword. Immediately, the Ares campers were released. They yelled as they were tossed into the lake by the momentum of their own tugging. I caught a glimpse of the Ares leader sneaking away from his crew.

The jerks trashed in the lake. They finally managed to climb out and run away. I could hear the sharks moaning with disappointment.

Meanwhile Nico sheathed his blade. He turned to me and smiled. "Thanks for saving me."

I still felt shocked, but a mass of tears slipped down my face. "Thank the gods. I thought you were dead!"

Nico shifted his weight. "Sorry about that. I put myself in a death trance. It seemed like the only way to survive."

A death trance didn't sound like a good thing, but I was just so happy that he was alive that I really couldn't help myself anymore. I leaped forward and hugged him.

Nico tensed, but after a while he put his arms around me. Tears of joy streamed down my cheeks.

Then he stiffened. He moved his arms and pushed me away. I heard something rustle, and put my hand in my pocket for my coin.

Annabeth stepped out from the trees. She had a shocked looked on her face. Her eyes wide. Her mouth hanging open.

"Annabeth. It's not- it isn't- we just-" Nico stuttered desperately.

Percy stepped out of the trees behind her, grinning widely. "Hey there. Going... out?" he said cheekily.

Nico just stood there for a moment. Then he hid his face in his hands and ran off through the trees.

I just stood there awkwardly, shifting my weight. Percy was still grinning at me. Annabeth had closed her mouth.

After awhile, Annabeth forced a smile at me. "Well," she said. "It's almost curfew so I can't let you get caught out here, can I? Back to your cabin guys." she glared pointedly at Percy.

Percy laughed. "Sure, no problem Wise Girl."

Annabeth turned pink. She turned and flounced off into the woods.

Percy headed off in the same direction. "C'mon, lovebird!" he called.

I flushed my cheeks. "It's not like that! He- he almost died! I-"

Percy laughed. "Try not to squeeze him so hard then." he joked. Then I lost sight of him in the woods.

I was so frustrated. I may have only just got Nico to be my friend. And I blew it.


	17. Lily XVI

**Demigod Diaries - Lily XVI**

Percy let me get ready for bed and all, but the second my head touched the pillow then he turned and said "How is it like dating Nico?"

Just to remind you, I am shy. Very, very shy.

"I- I'm not dating him." I stammered. "We- we just hugged because- because those jerks pushed him into the lake so I- I was just glad that- that he was alive. I- I mean- he put himself in a death trance. I thought- I thought he was dead."

Percy nodded, still grinning. Then, surprisingly, he let me be.

I thought about what he had said before. "It's just- I know what you did. I shouldn't have, but I figured it out. I took it back. Sorry." very strange, but maybe I knew what he was talking about.

I felt my hand under my pillow. Nothing. His diary was gone. So he had taken it back.

I felt something crinkle underneath. When I pulled it out, it revealed to be a mere piece of paper.

On one side was a ballpoint drawing if me, and he made it so much prettier than the real me.

On the other, Nico had written something in Latin, maybe a prophecy.

It took me awhile, but my senses started sharpening up to the Latin. Eventually, I came up with "Wisdom's daughter walks alone, the Mark of Athena burns through Rome. Twins snuff out an angel's breath, who holds the key to endless death. The giants bane stands gold and pale, won through pain from a woven jail."

I couldn't figure out when I had heard that prophecy before, but I was sure I had. Then I wondered whether Percy knew anything about it.

"Percy?" I called.

"Snore!" came the reply. Oh. Asleep.

I didn't really want to sleep, so I read some more Percy Jackson books. I managed to finish the Battle of the Labyrinth.

"Snore! Snore!" said Percy.

_'Maybe I should sleep too.'_ I thought._ 'It's been a long day.'_

Then I blinked. I had a feeling those thoughts had not come from me.

"Who said that?" I thought aloud. As if in answer, the empty fish tank at the end of the cabin shimmered with light.

That empty fish tank always had light around it. It was right next to window, and as far as I could tell we only kept that fish tank around because it created a rainbow that looked kinda nice (that besides the fact that we were both too lazy to get rid of it anyway).

But then I saw that the shimmering was the light reflecting off six large gold coins.

_Drachmas._ The money of Olympus. Pure gold, probably worth millions.

But they were coins. And coins I have to collect.

The first thing I thought when I reached into the tank to get them was that those coins were from our father, Poseidon. So of course I had to share them with Percy.

The coins were so huge that one could fill my entire palm. I took one out first to examine it. As I did, it dissolved into the rainbow.

I was shocked. I mean, what kind of rainbow just swallows up beautiful coins?

Then the rainbow shimmered. It enveloped itself in mist. An image began to form. I saw a girl that looked about fifteen with a long, wavy blonde hair cascading down her back with a thin braid down one side, a sparkling gold ribbon and caramel gold eyes. Behind her were dark woods and she had splashes of firelight dancing around her face. She sat next to a freckly, short-haired brunette and they were both laughing like old pals.

I realized with a jolt that it was my older sister, Caramel.

Caramel was supposed to be at a boarding school in Australia. It was supposed to be so strict that she wasn't even allowed phone calls or holidays much, a school for troublemakers like her (though I never found out what she had done to earn the title of 'Troublemaker') yet here she was, giggling with a new best friend at what looked like a camping trip wearing a sparkly silver jacket and jeans and looking no older than she had three years ago, back when she was supposed to be fifteen.

For awhile, I just stared open-mouthed.

Then I blinked and said "Caramel?" just to be sure it was her.

Caramel jumped and so did the girl next to her. They looked directly at me with wide, frightened eyes. Then Caramel seemed to realize it was me and relaxed a little. She still looked nervous, but she forced a smile. "Lily! ...What are you doing?"

I didn't answer that.

"What are you doing?" I cried. "You're supposed to be in Australia! At school!"

My sister looked uncertain. Then she turned to the other girl and said "Ginni, why don't you get us some hot chocolate?"

The girl stood and nodded. "Of course, Caramel." Then she left.

My sister looked at me and smiled weakly. "So, you know you're a demigod then, Lily?"

I had millions of questions bubbling up inside of me. For once, my shyness didn't hold me back. This was my sister. I could say what I wanted.

"Caramel! You knew who I was all these years and you never tried to tell me?! How could you!"

Caramel shifted her weight. "Lily I wanted to. I even tried. But it would only have put you in more danger, and I didn't even know about it myself until a few years ago."

The way she said that bothered me, as if it wasn't really just me she was talking about.

I tried to calm myself down, thinking that my shyness was actually a great help in my life, and forced myself to speak without using too many exclamation points.

"Caramel, where are you?" I asked.

She smiled sympathetically. "Japan. We're hunting a manticore."

She acted like that cleared things up.

"What manticore? Why aren't you at school?" I demanded.

Caramel took a deep breath then sighed. "Lily, didn't mom tell you? After you found out?"

"Tell me what? Why aren't you in Australia?" I said.

"Lily, calm down." said my sister. I took a deep breath.

"Lily, listen. When I discovered I was a demigod, you were only nine. I was scared. Monsters started attacking us all the time, and you were too young to notice. I ran away for awhile. I thought that if I left, you'll be out of danger." she sighed. "I didn't realize you were a demigod too. When I came back, I found out and wanted to tell you, and it was just so painful living with that secret. So I hid. I've been running ever since." she paused. "I joined the hunters. I found camp but I didn't really want to go there. I hoped that you would be safe."

She took a step forward. "Mom knew. I always wanted to come back, but we were always busy. Hunting down monsters and trying to save the world."

I wasn't sure if she was kidding about the 'trying to save the world' part.

"So you've been traveling around the world, camping and hunting monsters all these years? While I thought you were going to a boarding school?" I asked in disbelief.

Caramel nodded. "I wanted to tell you, Lily, but that would have meant telling you who you were and putting you in danger. I'm sorry."

I believed her. I wanted to yell at her, but I believed her, and that sort of made it hard to yell at her.

I still had one more question.

"Caramel, who was your father?"

Caramel opened her mouth to speak when Ginni came bustling back. "Hot chocolate!" she announced, beaming. Then she glanced at me. "Who's that?"

Caramel cleared her throat. "That's my sister, Lily. Lily, this is Ginni."

Ginni nodded politely to me. Then she turned to Caramel. "Artemis called your dad to pick us up. He's going to send us to America looking for the manticore so if you want you drop by Camp Half-Blood..." she trailed off, waiting for an answer.

Caramel sighed. "We need to focus on the manticore. When we have time, I'll visit." she smiled at me. Her expression said "Sorry!"

I understood. The fate of the world was way more important than visiting your little sister once in a while, and that wasn't sarcasm. "But who-"

Suddenly, a blinding flash of light filled the scene. It was so bright that it filled the room too, and Percy sat upright in bed.

"Close your eyes, Lily! Don't look until he parks!" shouted Caramel.

'Parks?' I thought, but I was already squeezing my eyes as tight as I could.

I heard the screech of wheels and opened my eyes to see a shiny gold sports car parked at the edge of the woods and lighting up the whole camp.

One of the hunters put her hand on her hip. She looked about twelve and had auburn hair down her back. I realized she was the Goddess Artemis.

The door of the car opened. A hot teenager stepped out, Apollo, I realized.

He grinned a perfect smile. Having fun, sweethearts?" he asked, looking around and occasionally wagging his eyebrows. Then he turned to the aurburn-haired girl. "Hey baby sis!" he said as he hugged Artemis.

Twelve-year-old Artemis wriggled out of his grip. "Don't call me sis! Or baby sister! We're twins!"

Apollo just grinned and morphed from hot blonde teenager in a sleeveless t-shirt and ripped jeans to bulk blonde adult in a gold tracksuit. He strode over to us, the hunters parting before him and staring at him in awe, as if they had never seen him like this before. I tried my best to stay out of the picture before anyone caught sight of me.

"Hello, Caramel." he said. His voice was deeper, less playful, yet I could still detect his cheeky nature in it. "Having a nice day?"

Caramel swallowed. "Yes, father."

I was shocked. Sure, Apollo could be a teenager anytime and Artemis was usually twelve years old, but after watching this guy hit on the hunters and drive a super-shiny sports car I couldn't imagine Apollo being Caramel's father.

Apollo smiled and nodded. "Good. I'm glad you're having fun. Well then, everyone, hop in!"

He turned to his car and it changed into a gold double-decker bus at the same time he changed back into a playful teenager. Most of the hunters trudged over to the bus. One that stood out with a leather jacket and chains instead and a silver circlet muttered "Oh, just great." I realized that was Thalia, daughter of Zeus.

Caramel turned to me. "Lily, I've got to go. Just remember that I do care about you. But I really need to follow them, this is the path I need to take. Now go, and... message me from time to time, okay?"

I smiled. "Okay."

Caramel flashed me a thumbs-up then waved her had over the mist. It dissipated as she did and suddenly I found myself in a super-dark cabin. Probably just because I almost got blinded by the sun god.

"Lily? What just happened?" called Percy from the side. I had forgotten that he had been woken up by the crazy sports car that almost blinded me.

"Sorry Percy, father gave us some drachmas but I accidentally fed one to the rainbow." I admitted sheepishly.

Percy laughed. "Seriously? Dude, that was Iris-messaging. You put the coin in the rain bow and say 'O Iris goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering. Show me someone at somewhere."

I laughed too. "Okay. Um... here are your three coins." I said, careful not to let them touch the rainbow.

Percy stuffed them in his pants pockets. "Great. Get some sleep." I had to admit, I was pretty tired.

The moment my head touched the pillow, I fell asleep.


	18. Lily XVII

**Demigod Diaries - Lily XVII**

When I woke up the next morning, the first thing I sought to do was visit Annabeth.

Annabeth was at the fountain as usual. She had her head engrossed in a book. I gathered up my little bit of courage and tapped her lightly on the shoulder.

Annabeth looked up kindly with those intimidating grey eyes of hers. "Yes, Lily?" she asked.

My throat felt dry. I forgot how to form words. Then I remembered that only last evening, Annabeth had caught me and Nico hugging in the woods.

"Annabeth, I've not dating Nico." I blurted out. "He was drowning and put himself in a death trance. I was just so happy that he was alive."

Annabeth nodded. "I understand. But I advise you not to let me catch you like that again, or I may think differently. Now, is there something else?"

There was. The prophecy Nico had given me. Annabeth would know it. She was wisdom's daughter.

"Yes," I said. "Nico gave me a prophecy."

Annabeth's eyes widened. "What? Tell me."

I recited the prophecy in English. "Wisdom's daughter walks alone, the mark of Athena burns through Rome. Twins snuff out and angel's breath who holds the key to endless death. The giants bane stands gold and pale, won through pain from a woven jail." I looked up at her horrified expression. "I'm pretty sure it's come true already."

Annabeth looked stunned. Then she patted the spot next to her to indicate that I should sit with her. She stuck her fingers in her messed-up hair uncomprehendingly.

Finally she directed her question to me. "Lily, have you read the Percy Jackson books?"

Usually, that would have been and odd question to ask but now it seemed fitting, since those books basically outlined their entire life story.

"Yeah." I answered. "Most if them. I've just started 'The Last Olympian'. Why?"

Annabeth gripped her knees. "Well, Lily, it's... complicated." her eyes darted round, as if searching for the enemy. She seemed to be trying to choose her word carefully. "Our past, there was another war after the war of the titans. I believe Sally Jackson is in the midst of writing those books, but no matter. I must tell you now."

I crossed my legs, the way I always do when I'm getting ready for a bedtime story.

"What do you remember about the ages?" she asked.

I thought about that. "Well, there is the age of the gods, and there's the age of the titans. I... think there might have been the age of the giants or something?"

Annabeth nodded. "After the titans were subdued, Gaia tried to rise and ordered her race of giants to kill us demigods. She wanted to spill our blood on the earth were Gaia would rise."

It was a lot to process. "So... Mother Earth is evil?"

Annabeth nodded, then looked confused, then sighed. "Okay, it doesn't exactly matter. But that was the prophecy for one of our quests."

I tried to make sense of that. "Okaaaaaaaaaay... so I guess the first part is something about you... and the Mark of Athena? And the giants were suffocating an angel... like maybe Cupid? Or, I guess there's Death, they say he was an angel too. The giants bane must be a good thing, probably something magic. And I guess you managed to get some sort of woven jail after a hard journey or something?"

Annabeth's expression was impossible to read. The most I could figure was that I had gotten it wrong. Then she sighed.

"Lily," she began. "I've seen you hanging out with Nico a lot, whether you like him or not. Why?"

That was not what I had expected.

"I... I don't know." I stammered. Annabeth waited pointedly. "He... he sorta seemed interesting. I was curious about who he really was, what he could really do. I wanted to see if I could get him to show me who he is when he's relaxed, not so busy bring the scary son of Hades."

Annabeth nodded as if she understood. "Well, have you heard of the prophecy of the seven?" she asked. I shook my head. "It was the next Great Prophecy. Me, Percy and five others called Jason, Leo, Frank, Piper and Hazel." (I felt like punching Hazel again) "When we first set out for the quest, Nico had been captured and put in an airtight bronze jar." I remembered what he had written in his diary 'Trapped in a jar. Can't breathe.' "At the same time, I was on a personal quest called the Mark of Athena to find the Athena Parthenos. It would only reveal itself to me so I had to do it alone. 'Wisdom's daughter walks alone, the Mark of Athena burns through Rome.' Then 'Twins snuff an angel's breath, who holds the key to endless death.' well, Nico Di Angelo was looking for the Doors of Death at that point..." she trailed off. I remembered how I had used to call him 'Nico The Angel'.

Angel... Some giants had tried to suffocate Nico? But how had he survived? Sure, I thought he could get out of a bronze jar, but he himself had written that he couldn't breathe.

Then again, Nico is amazing. He probably busted out some super-powered escape, Nico-style. At the very least he could have held out long enough for someone to come rescue him.

"So..." I ventured. "The giants trapped Nico in an airtight bronze jar and he somehow managed to escape?"

Annabeth nodded. "Nico ate some special pomegranate seeds and put himself in a death trance. He left us just enough time to track him down, trick the giants into releasing him and stalling long enough for him to get away."

I shook my head. "So, Nico stayed in a jar with no oxygen and just seeds for food and could still escape a fight?"

In answer, a hand rested on my shoulder. "He was still half-asleep." said Percy's voice. "I had to throw my Wonder Bread at him to make him moan less and crawl faster." Annabeth made room for him and he plopped down beside us.

'Wonder Bread?'

Okay, maybe, just maybe, I was over-calculating Nico a little, only a little. There was the very bare possibility that Nico wasn't that freakishly powerful. The very bare possibility.

Still, I realized I was honestly starting to idolize Nico Di Angelo.

"So... why is Nico telling me this?" I asked.

Percy's brow furrowed in confusion. "Nico? But..." which was when Annabeth butted in and said "We honestly better get to breakfast. We'll be late." and seemed to close the conversation.

Breakfast was delicious, as usual. I got GrapeCherryBubblefroth and Percy got Blue Cherry Coke. Looking across the pavilion, I could see Nico picking at his food. Percy was doing a one bite disappearing act with his pizza. He was that hungry.

Suddenly, Nico froze. He stared down at his plate, then dropped it on the floor. It burst to flames but no one else took any notice.

Nico turned, his eyes wide and murderous, but still very scared and startled.

He flicked his hand. All the Ares campers plates fell to the ground at the exact same moment. It created a huge clatter as they crashed to the ground. For a moment, everyone was silent with anticipation. Then the whole dining pavilion exploded with laughter. For once, I joined in. The Ares jerks had tried to kill Nico more than once. They deserved more than just humiliation or kitchen duty or both.

Chiron huffed. "Kitchen duty for your cabin today, which reminds me that you also have it tomorrow as your cabin scored the lowest in inspection."

Barth Slow and his jerks looked stricken and sat with their hands outstretched and their mouths flapping as they tried to think of something to say.

I sat back and suppressed a last laugh. Finally, Nico Di Angelo was getting his back.

After breakfast, I grabbed my bow and we started heading towards the woods for target practice. Nico was way more quiet than usual.

Eventually, he spoke and broke the ice. "About last night..."

"I explained it to Percy and Annabeth already, so I think we'll be fine." I said quickly. I didn't feel like going through another one of those conversations.

Nico turned red. "Um... no. It's not about that. I mean, it sorta is but I was going to say, well, you were pretty awesome back there."

I didn't know why my heart was beating three times as fast. "Really?" I squeaked.

He was really red now. "Of course! You were talking to the sharks and diving into the water while I was tied up at the bottom of the lake putting myself in a coma."

When he put it that way, it really did sound heroic.

I felt like I was blushing too. "But Nico, I didn't really do anything!"

Nico shook his head stubbornly. "You know that's not true."

I was about to protest when there was a shout from behind us. "Hey Skeleton Boy, come here!"

I didn't need to turn to recognize the king of the jerks.

Surprisingly, Nico obeyed and turned to face him.

Nico was only inches away from him now. I realized for the first time how much smaller he actually was compared to Barth.

Barth had a peculiar look on his face. He seemed surprised, pleased and worried all at the same time.

"Ha!" shouted Barth. "Little scaredy-cat!"

Nico was now nose to nose with Barth. He looked up and spoke calmly. "I would very much like for you to come to my homeland to play. I'm sure you know where that is. Of course, you can't come like this, but I could help you change your form. It's just about as easy as the swing of a sword."

He chose his words carefully. Anything he said was hardly negative or threatening, yet it was easy to tell what he was saying 'I'll like to kill you and it won't be hard.'

Barth blinked. Then he growled. "Go to Hades. I swear-" he began to draw his blade.

Nico was quicker. Within a second he had pinned the tip of his sword to Barth's throat.

Somehow, Barth maintained his bully look, which was very hard considering that he was the one with the sword to his throat.

Nico nodded, he said "Think about it." then thrust his sword into the ground. About a dozen ghostly skeletons crawled out from the ground and grabbed at Barth the Fart.

Nico stood down. He sheathed his blade.

"Death Face, I'm gonna pound ya into mush and then I'll-"

"Oh be quiet!" yelled Nico. Barth opened his mouth and made an attempt to speak before Nico put his finger to his lips, which somehow left Barth moving his mouth like a goldfish.

Nico was quiet himself for awhile. He scanned the fountain area, as if to make sure there were no other witnesses, then spoke. "Take him to the woods, tie him up but don't hurt him yet." the skeletons seemed to take this as a command. They dragged Barth towards the woods as he struggled and tried to yell for help.

Nico sighed and sat down on the stone steps. He glanced up discreetly and I caught a glimpse of a worried expression.

I patted his shoulder a little, but he tensed. I cleared my throat and said "Well, I think he deserved that." just in case he was feeling guilty.

Nico shrugged like it was no big deal, but I could tell that it definitely was a big deal.

"They put a fire poison in my breakfast. Would've died if I actually tried to eat it." he said, with unnatural casualty.

"Oh." I said. That pretty much summed it up.

Nico stared into the horizon. I couldn't help feeling like he was planning something. He probably was.

Whatever it was, it wouldn't be that last time.


	19. Lily XVIII

Demigod Diaries - Lily XVIII

After I ditched Nico at his cabin, I headed back to my own and dug out one of my precious drachmas and chanted what Percy had told me to say.

"O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, show me Caramel Whisperer at... well... wherever she is. With the hunters I guess."

I threw the coin into the rainbow and it disappeared. A cloudy mist formed and I saw an image of my sister again, her golden hair now twisted into a sleek bun. She had shed her silvery jacket and now wore a slim white sleeveless and short black tights. Her feet were bare and she was knee deep in some sort of water.

"Caramel!" I yelled, making her jump a foot in the air.

"Di immortales!" she yelled. "Don't ever scare me again!"

I laughed. I had this habit of scaring her ever since I was four. "Face it, Caramel, I can't stop."

"Great," she grumbled. "just my luck."

I laughed again. "Where are you?"

"California. A natural hot spring. We killed the manticore three hours ago, I think..."

I wasn't really good with my studies of Greek monsters, they always creeped me out.

"What's a manticore?" I asked.

My sister sighed. "Haven't you been studying, Lily?"

I shook my head guiltily. "Well," she began. "A manticore is a half-human half-lion which shots poison."

I was impressed. "And you guys killed it?"

"Girls."

I blinked. "What?"

"You said guys. We're girls."

I didn't get it. Then I remembered that the hunters hated boys.

"Oh."

Caramel nodded grimly. Then she told me "We almost lost. Four hunters fell and I lost most of my arrows." she gave me a sympathetic smile. "But at least the demigod we found survived! You might be seeing her soon."

I didn't get it, but I pretended not to care.

"That's great!" I said.

She grinned. "We're resting up. Apollo dropped us off near the Empire State building this morning."

My ears were ringing. "So Apollo really is you dad?"

Caramel nodded. "Yeah. He personally came and told me when things were getting bad. He asked Artemis to keep an eye on me."

"Lucky!" I said. Why didn't my dad ever do anything like that?

Caramel smiled widely. "So what about you? I wanna hear all about Camp. Who are your friends?"

I sat back and told her about the day I found out, the view from the top of the hill, my activities, dad claiming me, meeting Percy, Grace and Philip, Nico...

"Nico Di Angelo? He's at your camp?"

I nodded. "Why? Do you know him?"

My sister shrugged. She had never been good at acting. "Nah. Just felt familiar. Go on. Why were you so interested? Most people just steer clear of him, he's so moody."

I was probably blushing like crazy, but I forced myself to answer. "I don't know. Just felt interested. He didn't seem so bad. Plus, he saved my life."

"Mm hm."

"Anyway, how do you know so much about Nico Di Angelo?" I asked.

"Hm? Oh. Just gossip. Things have really changed at Camp Half-Blood, haven't they?"

I didn't get what she was talking about. "How so?"

"Well, Nico was the most popular kid at Camp Half-Blood back in the old days. He used to get to sit at the head table with Chiron and Dionysus and all the important people. After all, he did save everyone in the-" she cut herself off, eyes gleaming with an amused smile, the smile that aways made me think Uh oh, she's got a plan.

"In the what?" I asked curiously.

But Caramel stubbornly shut her mouth and shook her head. Probably just to irritate me.

She gave me a mischievous grin. "So you've got a crush on an underworld kid."

I'm pretty sure my face looked like a beetroot. "No I don't!"

She smiled an annoying, sarcastically smug smile that reminded me of Percy. "Yes. Yes, you do."

"No, no I don't!"

"You do."

"I do not!"

"You do."

"I don't!"

"Do."

"Don't!"

"Do."

"Don't!"

"Do."

"Don't!"

"Do."

"Don't!"

Caramel laughed. That just infuriated me even more.

"Face it, Lily."

I could feel my face burning. "What makes you think I have a crush on him, anyway?" I demanded.

Caramel flashed me that annoying smile again. "Lily, I know you. Nico is mysterious, kind on the inside, capable and powerful, quiet and antisocial, and he obviously likes you."

I shook my head. How could Nico like me? Sure, Poseidon's daughter. I couldn't even use my powers! He was the fourteen-year-old superman, I was the social-freak-weakling.

"Oh, come on!" insisted Caramel. "That's the only logical reason why Nico hung around Camp Half-Blood this long. Stay in a place where you get teased to death every day? Forced to protect yourself by attacking fellow campers? I wouldn't see anything else as a good reason to stay. Of course, if he was there for that other matter..." she trailed off.

"What other matter?" I asked. Caramel began picking at the edge of her shirt, biting her lip and twirling a super-curly strand of her blonde hair around her finger.

"Lily, Nico staying at a camp for a while usually means something is about to happen. It could mean something small like the Keys of Hades gone missing or a minor invasion of the camp, to something huge like the rise of Kronos or the quest to the Doors of Death. And-"

"Hold up." I interrupted. "The Doors of Death? What do you know about that? How do you know so much about Nico? Have you met him?"

Caramel was definitely nervous. She was playing with her hair, a sure sign that she was unsure of what to do. Her other hand drummed on the surface or the water and created an annoying series of tiny splashes. (It isn't completely her fault that she can't stay still, she's ADHD like a lot of the other demigods at camp. I never got dyslexia or anything like that, just lactose intolerance. And I love ice-cream too.)

The tension grew. I started picking at the helm of my t-shirt, which now meant that we were both squirming to avoid eye contact.

"It doesn't matter." I decided, dismissing the thought. It was stupid of me but I supposed that I probably didn't really need to get it from her. "The point is, I don't like Nico Di Angelo. He's too powerful and too moody. And too mysterious."

"You like mysterious."

I remembered what I had said a few days back when Nico and I sat at the top of the hill.

"Well, I didn't get to introduce myself properly. I'm Lily Whisperer."

"Whisperer... Sounds mysterious."

"Oh, I'm a very mysterious girl."

"It's not like that, Caramel, as just-" I searched for an answer, but it was as if my brain were trying to persuade me I wrong.

You hugged Nico. Point one for Likes Nico.

You stuck with him even when he was too scary. Point two for Likes Nico.

You persuaded him to join the sword-fighting competition. Point three for Likes Nico.

You kept watching him. Point four for Likes Nico.

You didn't tell anyone he was a spy. Likes Nico five, Doesn't Like Him zero.

Maybe Caramel took over my brain and is now influencing me.

"I don't like him." I decided. "He's just a friend."

Caramel smiled knowingly, that made me wonder just how much she really knew. She was acting like Bianca now.

"Yeah, yeah." she said. "Have fun!" then with a wave of her hand, the mist disappeared.


	20. Lily XIX

**Demigod Diaries - Lily XIX**

Over the next few days, Nico was always slightly distant. He let me hang out with him the way we used to (even if you could actually call it hanging out) pretending that I didn't hug him or save his life a few nights before.

But things had shifted a bit. Nico started waiting for me outside my cabin and helping me hunt and all. He wasn't much help in hiding, since I couldn't melt into the shadows like he could, but somehow I felt better when he tried to make he effort to be my friend.

The disturbing things were the never-ending pranks played on the Ares Cabin. They constantly experienced kitchen duty, cursed chariots, falling plates, loose skeleton horses, frozen cabins, moving rock walls, crazy sharks, you get my drift.

The problem was, I had a distinct feeling I knew who did all these. Someone who got teased constantly by those Ares jerks. Someone who was the victim of attempted murder.

You got that right, it was definitely Nico Di Angelo.

I didn't blame him, but Nico would definitely get in trouble for his pranks. Ordinary camper or no, he still had to obey camp rules.

Or so I thought.

A week passed. Chiron didn't say a word to him. It was pretty obvious to me, and the Ares campers probably knew too, but all everyone else just snickered at the jerks' bad luck.

I really wanted to talk to him properly, but it was difficult to hold a conversation with him. Like the next day:

ME: "...Hi! ...You waiting for me?"

NICO: "Um... yeah. Thought maybe you wanted to see me today. So... uh..."

ME: "No, it's okay! I'm just... surprised. Cause, you know, you never did that before."

NICO: "Oh, uh, sorry."

ME: "What's the occasion today?"

NICO: "Nothing, it's just... well, you always tried to stick around me so I figured that I should make things easier for you. "

ME: "So... what's up?"

NICO: "Um... we're supposed to go for breakfast."

ME: "Oh."

At which point I would, just out of habit, try to hold Nico's hand and he would, as always, flinch away like I was a fly he didn't really want to offend.

Then our cheeks would start going strawberry.

I really wanted to figure him out. I had a feeling that I might finally be his friend, but it all seemed so complicated.

Still, it's a start.


	21. Lily XX

**Demigod Diaries - Lily XX**

It was on Sunday that we played Capture-The-Flag.

The cabins teamed up and Percy and I maneuvered the Poseidon cabin into an alliance with cabin six, the Athena cabin. Annabeth gave everyone their positions slowly.

I should explain about Capture-The-Flag. There are two teams, the blue team and the red team. Each team has their own 'territory' which are separated by the border (a.k.a the little river) and they have to place their flag somewhere visible to where the referee is standing (Most, if on the the right side, would choose to put it at the top of Zeus Fist, the hill shaped like a poo). To win, one team needs to ran the other team's flag and cross the border into their own territory, where the flag will glow silver to symbolize victory. Also, it's better if that team's flag hasn't been stolen. The person who gets the flag over the border gets most of the credit, and is awarded with golden laurels. Then everyone goes for a campfire to either celebrate or moan.

We were, naturally, the blue team. Our flag was blue, the other team's was red.

At one point, when everyone was dispersing, I saw Annabeth jump slightly. Only then did I notice Nico standing beside her and saying something. Annabeth pursed her lips and shook her head at Nico but he seemed determined to get his way.

I supposed that meant Nico was on our team, after all, why else would he be hanging around our side?

I was supposed to have border patrol, but I felt bored doing that. Nevertheless, it felt good to just be ordinary for once and play Capture-The-Flag like a typical demigod training day.

There's no fun at border patrol. Especially if your team is a lot better than the other.

While Percy was guarding our flag and Annabeth was charging the enemy, I was stuck where there would be no fun at all.

Chiron blew his whistle. The shrill sound thrummed through the battlefield but was quickly tuned out by the roar of determined battle cries.

Even from afar, I recognized the Athenians, running straight into the enemy territory. Annabeth was weaving her way through the trees with the mob serving as a distraction.

Great. I was gonna miss all the fun, as usual.

Arrows flew. I noted that the Apollo cabin didn't seem to have spotted Annabeth. The arrows slowed the Athena campers down from afar and the close-ranged archers pinned them down by their clothes while Annabeth sneaked by.

So far so good. We might actually win for once.

Boring.

Up at our flag, Percy Jackson was talking to some other campers. I felt a twinge of jealousy that I didn't get to hang out with him the same way. Sure, there was that five-year age difference, but doesn't being half-siblings count for anything?

I probably shouldn't complain, I mean, he still helped me and let me follow him to do some stuff, but it seemed like just mutual respect. He was only doing as much as a senior counselor or a big brother, not so much as a friend.

I turned my attention back to the battlefield. Most of the Athena girls had been pinned down. Several Hephaestus kids were trying to hold the other team back, but they were only good at building things not fighting.

Annabeth had more or less given up on stealth by now and was sparring with someone from the Ares cabin. We still had the upper hand and the other team's defences were weak, but we no longer had a good opening to take the flag.

Great. Now I'm gonna be bored AND we're gonna lose.

It was around that point that I started to wonder where Nico was. He had to be somewhere on the battlefield.

I scanned the crowd for him. I had recently discovered that it's extremely hard to spot Nico Di Angelo, especially in a large crowd as he practically dematerializes when he's not talking. Or at least it seems like that. It probably isn't literally.

I was about to give up when I saw him at the top of Zeus Fist next to the other team's flag, suddenly appearing put of nowhere.

He snapped his fingers. Instantly, all ten of the guards fell to the ground without having time to even acknowledge him. The kids fighting further down didn't seem to notice.

Nico put both hands around the pole of the large red flag. It was hard to see his expression from afar, but I could almost see him straining to pull the flag from the ground. As he lifted it up and set it lightly on the ground, he looked it up and down as if it was a rather expensive shirt he was deciding whether or not to buy. Then he lifted his arms and disappeared. With the flag.

Someone in the battlefield pointed and got everyone's attention. I could make out him saying "The flag's gone!" Everyone went into a frenzy, trying to figure out who had the flag. Annabeth was saying something, but I couldn't hear her.

Stupid border patrol.

Campers were no longer fighting. The other team seemed to have given up trying to capture our flag and instead madly searched for their own. So no one needed to cross the border.

Sucks.

"Hey."

I must have jumped a foot in the air. I swung round and almost hit Nico on the nose.

He was standing so close. I could feel his breathing on my neck. How he'd managed to get so close so suddenly I had no idea. I quickly took a few steps back.

"Nico! You startled me!" I said. Still blinking hard from shock.

Nico looked uncomfortable about that. "Oh. Sorry." he said.

He looked tired. He kept rubbing his eyes with his one free hand and looked as if he was trying to wriggle a yawn. I noticed that the other held the red flag, which he had somehow brought with him.

"You got the flag." I noted.

Nico nodded stiffly.

"Well then why don't you cross the border to our side?" I asked. "Then you'll win. We'll win."

Nico looked particularly uncomfortable about this, but he just shrugged and held the flag out towards me.

"Why don't you do it?" he said. I was surprised.

"Me? I didn't do anything! You stole the flag. You should do it."

He shook his head. "I don't want to. It's just a game. I don't need the glory. I don't want it. But you do. I can tell. Do it." he pressed the pole firmly into my hands.

I stared at the flapping red banner. It seemed like so long ago I had held it in my hand and run across the border. I'd never thought that I'll ever do it again.

I looked at Nico to confirm that he wasn't messing with me. That he really did want me to take the banner and win the glory. Of course he did, he rarely seemed to kid about anything. But it seemed unreal. Probably I wouldn't even have done that.

His expression was firm. "Go." it said. "Do it." He looked a little sad, but then again, he almost always did.

I hefted the flag and nodded my head. Turning, I ran across the river, willing the water to part for me. As I got to the other side, the banner glowed silver. For a moment, the whole world seemed to stay silent with an aura of confusion. Then a huge cheer rose from the blue team, echoed by the groans of the red team.

Chiron awarded me the golden laurels, and I thought I'd never felt happier in my life. In all my happiness, I didn't really pay attention to Nico as he stood at the back of the crowd then melted into the shadows.

Chiron nodded and said "Today's game was great, and I am proud of all of you for showing great skill," he gave me a meaningful look, "and teamwork."

I had a feeling Chiron knew that it hadn't been me that captured the flag. It struck me that I should actually say thank you to Nico, after all, he probably wore himself out getting the flag, yet he let me take all the credit. But I couldn't see him.

That night was another campfire night. It should have been hard to find him again, but I immediately spotted that circle of dry grass with him in the middle.

I grabbed two marshmallows, just in case he wanted one, and headed towards him.

"Hi." I said, sitting down next to him. The withered grass made a slight rustle as I moved but I ignored it.

"Hi." he said.

He hurriedly closed up he little blue book that he appeared to have been writing in.

I passed him a marshmallow, which he seemed to actually eat as opposed to what we usually get served.

"I wanna ask," I said "why did you let me take the flag?"

Nico stuffed the book back in his jacket pocket. "I told you. I don't need the glory. I wanted you to have it."

He was lying. His expression was slightly pained. He wanted the glory. He wanted people to know he had caught that flag and given them victory.

But he also wanted me to have that.

We sat in silence as we stared at the sky all through the night.


	22. Lily XXI

**Demigod Diaries - Lily XXI**

The pranks seemed to get worse.

It started with the simplest things. Missing wallets. False letters. Messed-up schedules. Ripped bed sheets. Trust me, those are very minor in the demigod world.

Then the more powerful ones become more common. Time freezes, frost all over the doors, tripped lights, mini tornados, fire illusions, falling asleep during rock-climbing, all that stuff. Nico had done quite a few of those to defend himself before but never this frequent.

Chiron was starting to notice some, but he didn't seem to make the connection to Nico. He was clean. For now.

It might've stopped sooner if the jerk Barth the Slow and his ugly crew hadn't kept trying to get even with him, therefore tipping the scale again and again. Day by day they teased him, shot at him, laughed at him. Day by day he snapped his fingers, flicked his wrist, closed his fist, and their cabins froze over. They're feet stuck to the ground. They convinced themselves they were in a fire in their illusions. They jabbed their fingers rudely and froze in time.

Soon it got worse. Suddenly they could never get two paces before they're chariot got a broken wheel. Or hit someone. Suddenly they're skeleton horses kept coming loose and stampeding in their cabin. They're benches catch a mild fire the second they all sat down at the pavilion. The ground cracking at their feet then closing up to trap a foot or two.

It seemed very extreme to me.

But they tried to kill him before.

A week passed, then two. It seemed like Chiron wasn't going to say a word about it, but he did.

That day, I was eating breakfast at my end of the pavilion while watching Nico pick at his food at the other end.

The pavilion held it's usual chatter until the Ares cabin ran in. People turned to stare. They were completely soaked and still in their pajamas. Barth shouted "_O Zeu Kai Alloi Theoi!_ I will crush you for this!" and it wasn't the first time.

Nico didn't even seem to notice them.

Chiron turned. "Why are you campers in your pajamas and why are you wet?" he said.

"Why? Why? Our water system exploded! And somedbody ripped our t-shirts to shreds!"

Those sounded minor to me. At least it was just water. It could've been fire. Or ice. And t-shirts could be replaced. Not that I wanted any of that stuff to happen to me. But these guys tried to kill Nico.

Chiron stroked his beard and gestured for them to sit down.

They did, then their silver plates and forks and knives started attacking them. The campers tried to dodge the army of silverware but then had to draw they're swords to fight. Even if the knives weren't that sharp.

Chiron frowned. I could see Nico watching with amusement from the other end if the pavilion.

The jerks were yelling. Chiron was getting up. Nico snapped his fingers and the silverware all fell to the ground with a large clatter. Which set everybody off laughing.

Chiron stepped out of his wheelchair. Everyone went silent.

"Campers," he said, eyeing us all. "I think I made it quite clear: I will not tolerate pranks such as these. But you obviously want to continue disobeying, so I will see you all in the rec room in an hour to discuss this matter."

And on that happy note, we went through the rest of our breakfast in silence.

Later, as we met in the rec room, I scanned the room for any sight of Nico. I didn't see him, but he was hard to spot.

Chiron scanned the room, and appeared to think everyone was there and seated. He cleared his throat and addressed us.

"Now, as I mentioned before, I will not tolerate these pranks. You may think they were funny, but I can see them getting more and more dangerous. I would very much appreciate it if the person who did these-"

"I'll tell you who did it!" yelled Barth, standing up. "It's that Hades kid! He-"

The door flew opened. No, more like blasted open. Nico was just standing there. He looked like a shadow in front of a strong spotlight, just not so hard to look at.

He stepped into the room and snapped his fingers. The door slammed closed. A few kids from the Aphrodite cabin looked at him in confusion, as if they've never noticed he existed before.

I could tell he was working hard to try and keep his expression calm. He didn't do a very good job at concealing his anger, but he moved and spoke in a controlled way.

I could feel the tension growing in the room. Nico met everyone's eyes with a hard look.

Then he seemed to notice Barth standing up, and regarded him.

"Are you so dense you can't even say my name?" he said coldly.

Barth looked stunned.

Nico held his gaze for awhile, then he looked up at all of us. A dark aura seemed to settle upon him. I could feel waves of negative magic (or darkness, call it what you like it's pretty much the same). It was so strong I had to fight against blacking out.

"I am Nico Di Angelo! Son of Hades! Lord of the Dead." he said, grandly, but without pride.

His pitch-black eyes met Barth's with a look of disgust. I could almost believe that he could take Barth in a match with jut his eyes as weapons, the look they were giving me was already making my knees go jelly.

Barth seemed to remember that he was supposed to be a bully. He leveled his eyes and scowled. "_Vlacas_, I swear-"

Before any of us had time to register what he did, Nico had Barth pinned to the wall with the point of his sword under his chin.

Barth growled. He reached for his sword but Nico flicked his free hand and the sword slipped out and clattered to the floor. Beth opened his mouth in surprise.

Nico never dropped his gaze. "I am more than just the son of Hades." he said flatly.

No one dared to say a word except for Amy Crystal from the Hecate cabin. "Please," she said, standing up nervously. "Aren't you taking this a bit too far? The Ares campers did tease you a lot but so did the rest. Have you no mercy?"

"Mercy?" yelled Nico, swinging round. Barth was still pinned to the wall. He controlled his next words, though his voice was seethed with much anger. "They tried to kill to me!"

More waves of darkness and negative magic rolled off him.

The room seemed to melt away. I could still see the blurry outline of Nico pushing Barth firmly against the wall. Then the scene changed to near the cliff.

I saw another Nico (probably an illusion), sitting at the edge. He was scribbling in the dirt and I could see him looking sad.

"Knock him out." said a voice I knew all too well. I turned, as did everyone else, and saw the image of some Ares kids and their leading jerk. Barth stood net to one who was squinting down a bow and arrow.

The kid with the arrow pulled back the string. Barth squinted a little then said "A little lower."

The kid looked surprised as he adjusted it. "But... that's his neck. If I get it, it'll kill him."

"So what?" said Barth. "I'll like to see that little creep dead."

A few surprised breaths from the audience. The Ares campers shuffled a little and looked guilty.

The Ares camper in the scene stared at Barth, but when he saw that he was serious, he shrugged and let go.

Just as the arrow headed towards him, Nico in the scene got up and whirled round. "What-" he said, wide-eyed, just as the arrow sunk deep into his arm.

Blood trickled from the wound. The kid shot an arrow at his head. Nico clasped his hand towards his head and gasped as he collapsed on the ground, unconscious.

Barth got up and walked heroically (yeah, right) over to him, flanked by his group of jerks, some looking nervous and some grinning widely.

He yanked Nico's unconscious form up by the scruff of his neck. "You like to hang out around here so much, huh? Well, why don't you stay here!" he said. As the others crowded around him, Barth pushed Nico off the cliff.

The image shimmered, revealing that it was an illusion. It started melting away, slowly changing back to the rec room. Before it disappeared completely, there was a strong image of me running up towards them shouting "Nico!" which I don't even recall saying.

A few people looked at me, and I must have blushed a lot, but then all the attention was on Nico again.

He was the one holding Barth by the scruff of his neck now. Nico threw him aside, though I knew firsthand that he wasn't very strong, an he went sprawling on the floor. He still looked angry and controlled, but I noted that his hands were still shaking a little.

"Mercy?" he spat, as if he had forgotten that he already answered Amy Crystal's question. "I am showing mercy. You're lucky I promised not to kill anyone this time." he said. I was a little nervous about the 'this time' part.

Out of nowhere, Barth jumped up with his sword back in his hand and slashed at Nico. Nico drew his sword and twisted it out of his hands with some sort of lock-stab-flick maneuver, something that I had never seen anyone use before.

Apparently, neither did the other kids. They stared at him, he sheathed his sword but I noticed that his eyes darted around nervously, though it was hard to catch because of his pitch-black eyes an blank expression.

He was definitely hiding something, perhaps something that went a little further than just spying for the Romans.

Barth balled his fists. "Now see here you little creep-"

Nico turned to glare at him and suddenly Barth froze, still like a statue.

The other jerks jumped up and drew their weapons but they hadn't gotten more than five steps before they, too, turned solid.

At this point, Chiron cleared his throat. "Now, Nico-"

"You don't command me!" yelled Nico. We were stunned, hardly anyone ever interrupted Chiron. "All these years you promised me it would be worth it. Have I ever gotten better at fitting in? No! Have you ever tried to show me anything new? No! Have I learned anything I didn't know before? Only that there are a bunch of demigods out in the world that act like rabid hellhounds all day!"

Those comments should have been funny, but he was so scary right then that they really weren't.

Nico wasn't finished yet. "You claim that I'm just like all the other campers? Tell me why they're allowed to bully me and no one else! Tell me why they get punished for teasing the others and get ignored for trying to kill me! I'm glad that I'm not Greek!"

I didn't understand what he meant by not being Greek. Maybe it had something to do with the Romans.

Chiron knitted his eyebrows. "Nico Di Angelo, I-"

"What about when I didn't know I was the son of Pluto yet?" he yelled, interrupting him. "What about when I was an ordinary camper? What about all those times I sat around crying and waiting for Bianca to come back? What about when everyone was stealing my things and teasing me for not even knowing which was my mortal parent? WHY DIDN'T YOU CARE?"

Everyone was silent. Even Chiron had given up trying to talk to him.

When no one said anything, he took a deep breath.

"I've had it with all of you. I'm leaving." he said. And he turned to leave.

I don't really know why, but despite my fears, I stood up. I guess I jut had to stop him from leaving. To reassure myself that I'll at least get to say goodbye properly.

"Nico, you promised."

He stopped, and slowly turned around.

I looked into his eyes. "You promised."

For awhile, I was worried he didn't know what I was talking about, then he drooped his head a little. "Just until the contest. For you, Lily."

Then he turned and ran. Right towards the wall. In the millisecond before he hit it, he disappeared.

If a fly had bumped it's head on the wall, we could've heard it. That's how quiet the room was. A few kids were still staring at me.

I realized I was still standing, and quickly sat down in embarrassment.

Finally, Chiron stroked his beard worriedly and said "Well, that cleared things up, didn't it? You may all disperse. Could the current leaders of the cabins please meet back here in an hour."

And with that, everyone left.


	23. Lily XXII

**Demigod Diaries - Lily XXII**

I headed towards the Hades cabin once I left the rec room. It wasn't completely because I wanted to see Nico, but I also wanted get somewhere where no one would stare at me so much. I had been outlined twice in that meeting, in the image and at the end when Nico decided to stay just for me. Just because I told him that he promised.

Somehow, the walk took a very long time. I had enough one to think about the strangest things he said.

_"I'm glad I'm not Greek! What about before I found out I was the son of Pluto?"_

He was Greek. And Pluto was the Roman name for Hades, but we all went by the Greek names. Unless he was Roman and that was what he meant by not being Greek. And that might be some kind of Roman technique he used to counter Barth's sword before. Maybe that was why.

Apparently, he had been bullied before, back when Bianca had gone on a quest that she never came back from. And he had sat around crying all day waiting for her to come back.

I had never really thought about it, but the Ares jerks used to tease Philip, and Chiron had put a stop to it within a week. They had bullied the Demeter girls a little and had stopped after a few serious punishments. But with Nico, Chiron hadn't done anything until he was the one attacking.

The Hades cabin didn't have any windows. It was made from pure polished obsidian and had a dark aura. Not many came close to it. Still, it seemed very well cleaned. But that was just on the outside.

I remembered my surprise when a Hephaestus cabin guy had decided the Hades cabin got the best for inspection. The Demeter and Aphrodite cabins had been shocked. The rest had been surprised. That was probably one of the first times people had noticed him.

I knocked on the door, then I decided he probably couldn't hear me through that glassy stone. I searched around and noticed a doorbell in the shape of a skull.

Okay, already one obviously creepy thing about his cabin before I even walked through the door.

I resisted slapping myself for thinking that, then pressed the doorbell. The sound was a song I had never heard before.

Maybe halfway through the song, Nico Di Angelo popped his head round the door. The room behind him was still pitch-dark.

"Hey." he said, as if we were just going to someone else's birthday party together or something and I was just here to pick him up. His eyes slightly red, as if he'd been crying. His hair was a lot messier than usual, his sword wasn't in it's sheath. He was a little wet, like he'd just walked through a whole bunch of steam.

I smiled. It was a little forced but the fact that he looked so cute and goofy helped a lot.

I know what you're thinking. I don't have a crush on him.

"Hey. Can I come in?" I asked. Nico stiffened at that. Then he relaxed a little and waved me in.

The moment he began closing the door, I thought "_Di immortales_, what was I thinking?" the room was pitch-dark, I was afraid of the dark.

Then, the second the door clicked shut, little white lights like stars began twinkling on the ceiling. The floor lit up with a glowing violet/grape/royal purple light. Small weak spotlights switched on, each pointing towards the wall. A fountain suddenly started spouting out water with a rainbow light at it's base.

Amazing.

Then I realized what was IN the room. A huge pile of gold bars stood in the side, glowing with a faint gold aura unlike any other gold I'd ever seen, and I've seen my share of gold. There was a soda fountain and a desert vending machine there too. Loads of gaming machines lined the walls, PAC-man, Polluter-Shooter, City-Design, Friend-or-Foe, Sing-a-Long, Life-or-Death, and loads of others.

Further along, things got a little more living standard. A mountain pile of beanbags of all different shapes stood in the middle of a circular 'crater'. There was a little black sleeping bag nearby with dozens of different colored blankets strewn all over. A wheel thingy, one of those spinning weapon-sharpener machines, was still a few feet away from the circle and his Stygian Iron sword was lying next to it. There was little white bookshelf with some volumes on it but it couldn't see the titles from that far away. Right behind that was a huge TV that looked too big even for a cinema.

Cool.

What's more, I realized that the room was plastered with pictures and posters that left little space to notice the obsidian walls.

I went up to look at some of them. I saw a few with Percy Jackson and Nico Di Angelo together, some with Nico and some older Asian kid, a few with Nico and Annabeth too. There were a few with Nico and seven other kids, Percy, Annabeth, that Asian boy (except more muscly), two other boys and two other girls. Some of those were pretty nice, but most of them showed a moody Nico.

There were many pictures of him and Bianca, a few modern-looking but most were black & white. I saw one that included another woman, looking distinguished and maybe rich. But those black & white pictures looked old.

One showed the woman and little Bianca in front if a sign that said 'Best movie of 1956' but that couldn't be possible. 1956 was over 40 years ago. Nico was fourteen.

I saw a few modern pictures of Nico the blond teenager from the 'seven others' photo together. He looked more sad than moody in these. The blond wasn't like all the others. In the other photos, most of the kids had stood a small distance away from Nico, the blond didn't seem to mind that he was touching shoulders with this kid.

In one picture, the blonde had his hand on Nico's shoulder. They were facing each other, sort of. Nico wasn't scowling or trying to brush his hand off his shoulder and his head was drooped in a sad way. The blond looked at him in a way that seemed to say _"Hey man, it's okay. Everything will turn out right."_

I found a picture of him when he was probably around thirteen and a girl that looked maybe twelve. They both had their arms around each other and were smiling. Nico had a cheeky grin on his face and the girl had a nervous smile. Next to that one, on the right was one where the girl had her eyes closed and he was making bunny ears behind her head and on the left another one where she looked shocked and Nico was holding his stomach and laughing.

How come he never laughs like that for me?

I tried to figure out what their relationship might be. Probably just together on a quest. Still, their chemistry didn't look like that (oh geez, I'm starting to sound like Annabeth), they were more than just friends.

"That's Hazel."

I almost jumped a foot in the air again. I had almost forgotten Nico was in the room, and now he was right behind me, looking over my shoulder.

Hazel. Okay. Now I felt like punching the photograph.

For some reason, I felt jealous of her. Why didn't Nico laugh like that when I was around? Was she really that funny?

But it didn't really matter.

Still, I felt like I hated her. She looked so perfect. Her cinnamon brown hair curled and tumbled in the exact same way I always wanted mine to be. Her skin looked way nicer than mine, with a slight hazel tan.

Yeesh. I hate her.

When I turned, I was surprised to see a dartboard with Annabeth's picture on it. Several little darts were sticking into her nose, the bull's eye.

Nico realized what I was looking at and guiltily steered me away. e ended up crashing on the beanbags.

Nico shifted a bit as I got comfortable on a banana-shaped beanbag. Then I felt awkward.

Before I could say anything to break the tension, Nico said "I didn't realize you saw them."

I didn't know what he was talking about.

"The way you said it... it sounded like you just saw me falling." he said. I realized he meant seeing him fall down the cliff.

I picked a lint ball off a cupcake-shaped beanbag. "You were... honest in today's meeting."

Nico looked sad. "I let my anger flare up again."

I didn't answer that. "I should have taken my precautions like Hazel told me to." he mumbled.

In my mind, I Kong-Fu chopped Hazel. In reality, I put my hand on his shoulder. Nico tensed, but didn't try to stop me.

Nico lowered his gaze. "That statue spell... I don't know why I did it. I guess I just felt mad. I don't know if I can reverse it."

That made me nervous. "What do you mean?" I asked.

Nico started sharpening his sword on the wheel thingy. "If my heart's not in it, it's hard to reverse powerful spells. You'll need to use more complex ingredients to reverse it."

Nico was quiet for awhile. Then he looked directly at me. Those intimidating pitch-black eyes made me feel sleepy. "Lily, do me a favor." he said. I tried my best to stay awake. I didn't want to look away from his adorable black eyes. "Go on a quest."

I wasn't sure if I'd heard him right. "A quest?" I asked. He only nodded.

"Find several Redwood nuts, in Mount Othrys. It'll cure them. They'll look like... what nuts? Almonds? Cashews? _Hazels?_" he looked at me with a desperate expression as he said the word '_Hazels'_ then quickly moved on. "Peanuts? Um... must be acorns."

He quickly turned away.

I got the message. He wanted me to go on a fake quest and find Hazel, even if he didn't really think I understood.

I nodded. Looking at the huge gold eagle cuckoo clock (how could I have missed that before?) I noted that it was two minutes before the cabin leaders meeting started.

"Nico," I said. "Shouldn't you be getting ready for the meeting?"

He shook his head dejectedly. "No. They'll want to talk about me anyway. I couldn't stand listening to them."

It sounded fair enough. Before I could think I'd something to say, an old-sounding pop-tune filled the room. It also sounded like a victory song.

Nico listened a bit, then sighed wistfully. "Probably looking for you, Lily."

I didn't know what to say, so I got up and went to the door. As I opened it, the room turned dark. When I stepped out, it closed automatically, and I found myself face-to-face with Percy Jackson.

"Hey. " he said. "Time for the counselor's meeting."

I was confused. "I'm not the counselor, you are."

He nodded. "Yeah, but they want you there because of… you know."

"Oh. " I said as we trudged towards the Big House for the counselor's meeting. I was already dreading it.


	24. Lily XXIII

**Demigod Diaries - Lily XXIII**

I never really noticed how intimidating the cabin leaders could be. They always acted so goofy all the time. I would've guessed that the meeting would be serious, but they didn't always back me up on that.

When I stepped into the rec room, the scene that greeted me was nowhere near meeting-like. Everyone was sitting around the ping-pong table on beat-up wooden chairs. One of the kids was snoring at the side while another was painting crazy colors on his face, probably some sort of weird power, with his bare finger. One boy was throwing sausages to Seymour the leopard head. One girl was busy braiding flowers into her hair. Annabeth was writing something on blue paper, maybe a blueprint. Another kid was slurping up a gallon of coca-cola. A few were fighting and throwing coca-cola at each other. Behind May G. Carl was Amy Crystal, who had stood up for the Ares cabin when Nico was yelling at them, which was strange because they don't usually allow non-leaders to join the meetings.

I should point out that there is a big difference between a cabin counselor and a cabin leader. A cabin counselor does all the same stuff as cabin leader, but sometimes the cabin counselor doesn't stay year-round and another sort of vice-counselor is chosen to lead them if the cabin counselor isn't around. The cabin counselor is either the oldest, the one who was there the longest, or the one who completed the most quests.

When Chiron saw me, he gestured for me up sit next to Percy in an extra plastic chair. Then he addressed the rest. "Alright, Butch, please wake Clovis. Jake, Grace, Connor, Travis, stop throwing your drinks. Lily and Percy are here."

I was a little surprised to see Grace here, since she had only been claimed by Aphrodite yesterday. But then again, she could be a very persuasive person. Philip was also there, but I couldn't figure out who his godly parent was. He was staring into space with a hard look on his face.

I realized everyone was looking at me and started to panic. Luckily, Annabeth came to my rescue. Sort of.

She leaned forward. "Lily, what did you mean when you said Nico promised?"

Grace huffed. "It must be something important. I can hardly see why Nico would decide to stay just for _you_." she said 'you' as if I were an animal or something.

I shifted in my seat. "It's not really anything special. I wanted him to join the sword-fighting competition and he promised me that he would. It was the only thing I could think of when... when... Well I... I didn't want him to leave." I tried to control myself from stammering like I did whenever I got super nervous. My forehead was beaded with sweat, even though the AC was blasting sub-zero temperatures.

"Yes, but what did he mean by not being Greek?" asked one of the boys that had been fighting with the coca-cola, probably Jake. "He is Greek."

Chiron stroked his beard. "He was born Greek, yes. But Jason was born Roman and he claimed to be more Greek than Roman when-"

"Jason?" broke in the flower girl. "Who's Jason?"

"The Golden Fleece guy. I think." said Connor, or maybe Travis, both from the Hermes cabin.

"Nah. Can't be that one." said Travis, or Connor.

Jake (maybe) shook his head in disbelief. "You guys don't remember him? He came with Leo-"

"Oh, the bronze dragon?" said the boy throwing of sausages. "That was-"

"I don't care!"

We turned. Amy Crystal didn't usually yell. She was a little like me, just better at making friends. She was pretty quiet, but sometimes she found it necessary to raise her voice (though it didn't happen to me very often) but it always held a touch of nervousness.

She took a shaky breath and said "I don't care much about Nico Di Angelo." she winced slightly. For some reason, saying that name sent a chill through the air. Everyone looked a little more nervous. "I'm here because my idiot brother is now a statue and isn't showing any sign of turning back."

I didn't think before I nodded. "Before, when he cast other spells on them, he usually broke them so he wouldn't be discovered. But he doesn't have to do that now."

Everyone was staring at me. I felt nervous, but they had invited me here for a reason. I needed to tell them what they needed to know. Only what they needed to.

Amy looked directly at me. "Well, I don't blame him. My brother is a complete jerk. But we've still got to convince him to reverse the spell."

I started to remember the little bits and pieces I knew about Amy Crystal. She lived with a foster mom who also adopted this Ares guy named Billy Joe or something. They grew up together so they called each other brother and sister. I think.

"He won't do it." I said without thinking. A few people looked surprised. Grace's eyes bore into mine.

"What are you talking about?" she said, her voice weighed with bitterness.

"Reversing a powerful spell like that would take a lot more power if his heart isn't in it." I said, hoping I was saying the right things. "He doesn't want to waste his power on turning them back."

Amy scowled. "Saving my stupid brother from being a statue the rest of his life is wasting his power?"

I don't know where I got the nerve to say "Yes. He thinks it's not worth it."

Everyone was deadly silent again. I realized I was standing and quickly sat down again.

Amy drooped he head. "Then it's over. I'll never get to talk to my brother again." I noticed she didn't call him _jerk_ or _idiot_ or _stupid_ or anything else that bad this time. She buried her face in her hands.

May G. Carl pointed a painted fingernail at Chiron. "This camp is supposed to train us demigods to protect ourselves, and to protect us while we do that. How can you let something like this happen? How can you let a traitor come into the camp?"

I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach. She probably hadn't meant it that way, but it was so close to the secret I was guarding for Nico.

Chiron furrowed his brow. "My dear, you have yet to understand." he sighed, as if reluctant to share the information. "Nico Di Angelo is a very... interesting young man."

May G. Carl sighed and put a hand on Amy. "Then there's no hope. If he will be _interesting_ enough to cure them, then I will be grateful."

Amy Crystal whimpered.

Grace tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. She looked very pretty today, and her little silver knife hung by her side and made her look a bit like a rebel. Beautiful and dangerous.

"There has to be a way." she murmured. "Nico wouldn't just abandon us."

"We need a quest!" I blurted out. Everyone stared at me like I was crazy, but I forged ahead before I could panic too much and chicken out. "We need to find some special nuts to do a reversal spell and cure them! I know the type. We need to head to Mount Othrys and find several of those and bring them back here quickly! It's the only way. Nico told me!"

For a moment, the whole room was silent. I was tempted to drop my hairpin on the ground and see if I would hear it, but my nervousness quickly caught up and I dropped back down into my seat.

Percy coughed. "Well, I guess you're going on a quest."

"You can't!" Grace burst out. Her face turned red, but she masked it with anger. "Will no one else have a say in this? I'm far better at fighting. I'm the best choice for this quest."

For some reason, the others started nodding and saying that she was right. All except Percy, who was listening thoughtfully.

Amy Crystal wiped her tears and leaned forward. "Then let me come with you. I have to be on this quest. I need to save my brother."

Grace smiled triumphantly.

"Well," said Annabeth. "I suppose you may lead this quest, Grace. Now if you could pick-"

"No!" I said. This wasn't right. I had to go on this quest. There was no way Grace or Amy would take finding Hazel seriously. I wouldn't mind working with them, but I had to lead them. Nico was counting in me.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow.

"I have to go! You don't understand! Nico chose me to go on this quest!" I said desperately.

May G. Carl crossed her arms. "And why should we favor him? He's the reason we have to go on this quest in the first place!"

Jake got up and shook his fist in her face. "You will not comment on such things! Just because you were not here when the world was at stake doesn't mean-"

"Hello! He turned my brother to stone then refused to turn him back! That sounds like an enemy, don't you think?" shot Amy.

"They deserved worse than that." scoffed the sausage-throwing kid. "They pushed him off the cliff. They were willing to shoot an arrow through his neck."

"So? I think that's great. I wish they'd succeeded." said Philip sullenly.

I'm pretty sure it was Connor who splashed coca-cola all over him and said "Don't say these things! He was the sweetest demigod I've ever met. Don't you ever dis Nico Di Angelo!"

"Dis him?" yelled May G. Carl as she threw a can onto Travis. "I agree with the Area cabin. He'll be better off dead!"

Philip dropped his can onto Connor's head. The flower girl quickly hid. Grace kicked Philip and sent him sprawling on the floor. The kid with the gallons of coca-cola tried to hide his horde.

"So you'll rather he'd never been born?" said Percy calmly. Everyone quieted down.

May G. Carl was still standing. "Yes." she said, narrowing her eyes, as if she was trying to figure out how he was tricking her.

"Well then, if he'd never been born, I would be dead today."

Everyone was quiet.

"If he hadn't been born, all the old Ares campers would be dead too."

"If he'd never existed, Olympus today would be destroyed, Gaia would have taken over the earth, so to speak, and Camp Half-Blood would be a deserted battlefield. He trapped the Titan Kronos within the labyrinth. He rescued the sword of Hades from the clutches of Iapetus. He brought me to the River Styx and made me invulnerable. He found the Doors of Death. He lived for over seventy years. He stole the scepter of Diocletian. He drank the poison from the house of Hades, survived, and cured everyone else. He defeated the giant Clytius. He summoned an army of over a thousand dead legionnaires to defend Olympus. He saved us from dying in Tartaurus. He befriended the inventor Daedalus and the Titan Iapetus. He survived nine days without air. He fell to Tartaurus and climbed out. He saved our lives more than a million times. We would not be alive if he had not been here for us."

He looked around calmly, daring people to go against him. No one did.

Grace folded her arms stubbornly. "I will lead this quest. I think I will bring Nico-"

"No!" I couldn't win this fight. Somehow, Grace was manipulating them into letting her go. I didn't want to play this card, but I had no choice. "I have to lead this quest! If you don't let me, I won't tell you what you're looking for. And I doubt Nico will tell you either." I folded my arms and stared defiantly at the others, trying to keep my hands from shaking. "Go. Grab every nut out there on the mountain. Good luck."

They stared at me. This was something different. I had never been this outspoken before. I had never threatened anyone before. Something about spending all that time with Nico had changed me, or maybe it was being a demigod in general.

Annabeth cleared her throat. "Lily, be reasonable-"

"I am." I replied. How I finally found the courage to stay calm I don't know. Maybe Caramel was possessing me. "I am being very reasonable. I need to go on this quest, but I don't need to tell you why. I am willing to work with Grace and Amy, but I have to lead them. I have information straight from the cause, and I am the only one that can collect it. I can choose whether I want to share it or not. It's simple. You make me the leader of this quest, really treated like the leader not just said, and I'll give you information you need once we're out there. Take it or leave it."

Everyone was silent. They all stared at me but for some reason I didn't feel scared right then. I needed that quest and they were going to treat me like the leader starting at that very minute.

Finally, Percy said "She's right. Let's say... Grace and Amy go with her?"

Grace and Amy nodded slowly. I could see Grace thinking _"No fair!" _while Amy was going _"I guess so. Not much difference."_

Chiron nodded gravely. "Rachel should be back by tomorrow, so you must wait at least until then."

"Swear." I said. "Swear on the River Styx."

Annabeth looked uncomfortable. "Lily-"

"Swear on the River Styx." I insisted.

Annabeth hesitated, then sighed. "On behalf of the entire council, all the present leaders of this meeting and Amy Crystal, I swear that you will be the official leader of this quest. Provided that you follow the objective and reveal what kind of, um, nuts."

Percy stood up. "I guess that settles it."

And just like that, the meeting was over.

And I had won. I was in.

Wow.


	25. Lily XXIV

**Demigod Diaries - Lily XXIV**

I still couldn't believe that I had won.

Once I stepped out, I suddenly felt shaken up with nerves. My hands couldn't stop shaking my lips were trembling my knees felt like buckling and my vision was going blurry.

I thought I would collapse before I reached the fountain. It was as if by speaking out, just by going against my shy nature, all my energy had been drained out of me.

I probably would have passed out if I hadn't spotted Nico coming towards me. Something about seeing him gave me a burst of new energy.

He came over with anxious look on his face. "So?" he asked.

I exhaled. "I got the quest. We're going to find Hazel- I mean to get those nuts."

Nick nodded grimly. He checked me over with a look of concern. "What happened in there? Are you okay?"

I realized my knees were shaking. "I'm fine. I'm going on the quest with Grace Tan and Amy Crystal."

Nico pulled back. Then he said "Why the heck is Grace Tan going?"

I spotted Grace clenching her fists and watching us near the other end of the fountain.

He kicked the dirt. "_Di immortales_. At least tell me you're leading the quest."

I grinned a big, goofy smile. "Yep!"

He smiled at me. I resisted the urge to hug him.

Just then, Percy Jackson strolled over.

"Hey, kids!" he called. Nico scowled. Percy reached us in no time and ruffled Nico's already messy hair. Nico ducked as much as possible and pulled a sour face as Percy let go.

Percy laughed. "Seems like someone's been taking her courage pills today! When did you learn to stand up like that?" he asked, directing his comments to me.

I shrugged helplessly. "Just felt natural. Now I feel like I've been through war."

Percy doubled over with laughter. I was stunned. Was I really that funny?

Nico looked a hundred percent uncomfortable. "Percy... we were discussing something private..." he trailed off as another kid yelled "Look!" and of course we all looked.

Streaming through the sky were three large comets. But they looked so close. In fact...

"Duck!" I yelled. He all hit the deck as a fireball slammed into the fountain. It turned the water to steam.

Then, out from behind the clouds, came a huge bronze shape- of a dragon!

As it came closer, I could see three people on it's back. All of them had been in Nico's 'seven others' picture. One was a beautiful girl with long brown choppy hair flying freely in the wind, one was a boy with black curly hair and an impish face and elf ears, and another was the blond boy with blues eyes who had been in those sad photos with Nico.

The dragon landed, and all the old-timers started welcoming them. As soon as they all got off, the elf boy patted the bronze dragon's neck and started giving instructions to the Hephaestus kids. The pretty girl was swarmed by the Aphrodite girls who, amazingly, were not going for the blond boy (this was amazing because he was totally in their territory and was just the kind of boy they loved to flirt with). I did see Grace sneaking some dreamy looks at him before one of the girls in her cabin grabbed her shoulder and said "Don't even think about it."

The blond boy was getting welcomes from pretty much everyone. Even Annabeth came up and shook his hand. Percy gave him a fist bump and a "How ya doing, Jason?" so I guessed his name was Jason.

I just stayed with Nico.

When Jason started edging closer towards us amidst all the other campers, Nico stepped closer.

Jason was laughing. He turned and Nico shoved the point of his sword under his chin.

"We need to talk." he said blankly to the boy, not meeting his eyes.

Lots of people were staring at them, but Jason just shrugged. "Sure, man." he said. Nico didn't move his sword. Jason put his hand in his pocket and brought out a large lumpy gold coin and flipped it. It changed into a golden sword mid-air like mine. Nico grabbed it out of the air without looking and sheathed his own blade. He turned his back and started off towards the forest with Jason following behind him.

I couldn't help but follow them.

I have a flair for staying quiet. I managed to follow them to Bulls-Eye clearing then climb up a tree to watch without them noticing me.

Nico stopped right in the middle of the clearing, where the grass had turned yellow.

Jason looked calmly at the wilted circle. "You spend a lot of time here." he said, gesturing towards it.

Nico didn't turn, so I couldn't see his expression. "It's the one place where I can be alone."

He turned to face Jason. Jason smiled and spread his arms. "Well, if you're going to kill me, why not now?" he said in amusement. I could tell he didn't expect that Nico even wanted to kill him, yet there wasn't a hint of sarcasm.

Nico fell backwards onto the ground. Jason just smiled and looked over at him. He bent down and picked up his golden sword, changing it back into a coin, and walked over to Nico.

Jason put his hand on Nico's shoulder and yanked him up. Nico reluctantly sat up. I noticed that he didn't even seem to tense when Jason touched him.

Nico drooped his head. "I'm doing something terrible, Jason. I can't figure out how to stop it." he said. Jason's smile wavered. "You were with Piper all summer. You don't know what's been going on."

Jason sat down next to him. "Look, I don't know what you're going through, but remember that I understand and you can tell me. It'll be fine."

Nico scowled. "Lily won't be friends with me when she finds out." he muttered.

"Who?" asked Jason, sitting forward.

Nico's face turned red. "It doesn't matter." he muttered.

Jason raised an eyebrow. "Is Cupid bullying you again? Or Aphrodite? You looked the same way in Dalmatia."

Nico groaned, then he turned away from Jason. "I'm guessing it's Aphrodite." he said.

Jason nodded. He put a hand on Nico's.

Nico looked down at it. "She's just a girl. Daughter of Poseidon. Around thirteen."

Jason smiled. "Well, you've a thing for children of Poseidon. How is she?"

He started twisting his skull ring, which made the ground tremble slightly. "She's... mysterious."

Jason grinned. "Like you."

"Yeah."

"That's what you like about her?"

"More like what she likes about me." said Nico absentmindedly. Then he stopped and clapped his hand over his mouth.

Jason elbowed him a little. "Go on. Let go of your feelings. You'll feel better."

Nico sighed. For a moment, I thought he might attack Nico. But instead he unzipped a pocket and took out the pink chrysanthemum flower yarn statue of me. He sat it down on the grass and it began to move, mostly walking or looking embarrassed or skipping along.

Jason smiled at it. "I guess you like her a lot, huh?"

Nico played with the little hands. "She's the only one that seems to care about me around here. Every time someone picks on me, she's there, waiting with a shoulder for me to lean on. I can't bring myself to tell her the truth." he looked up at Jason with his big round eyes. "I don't know how to accept her. I that awful?"

Jason patted his shoulder. "Just be yourself. You'll be fine."

"But I can see how scared she is whenever I do something like... She gets all frightened and worried that I'll get mad at her and..." he trailed off.

I wanted to slap myself. Maybe then I would behave better for Nico.

Jason sat calmly. "And...? Tell me about her."

Nico was very very red now. "She's- she's so kind and so daring, but... But she's not like Hazel. She can't take care of herself. She's not powerful."

I felt like I had been slapped. That was it. He needed someone who could take care of herself. I was just useless.

I couldn't stand it anymore. I jumped down from my tree and ran.

They didn't even notice me. I could hear Nico saying "I don't want..."

But by then I had fled.

Maybe because I really did want him to like me.

Maybe that was why I had to find Hazel.


	26. Lily XXV

Demigod Diaries - Lily XXXI

Nico was very very red now. "She's- she's so kind and so daring, but... But she's not like Hazel. She can't take care of herself. She's not powerful."

I didn't stop to think where I was running. I finally stopped in the middle of the cabin ring, next to the fountain.

It seemed so agonizing that Nico didn't like me. Okay, maybe he did. But all the same, he couldn't because I was too weak. I couldn't take care of myself.

I know what you're thinking. Well, maybe I do want him to like me. Just a little bit.

I wanted to cry. I wanted to kick someone. I wanted somebody to blame. I wanted to wake up and find out that this was all a dream.

Only of course I didn't. Because then Nico never existed. And I would be going around thinking about my imaginary crush for the rest of my life.

Not that I have a crush on him.

What I really needed was someone who could comfort me, give me good advice. I wanted a second chance, in which I would try way harder to develop my child-of-sea-god powers. I wished I could solve it as easily as I could solve a math question.

I needed a swim.

That turned out to be one of the things that reminded me that not all the gods were mean. Poseidon created the beautiful, relaxing sea. He couldn't be bad. Zeus changed the sky to pretty colors at night. He couldn't be all bad. Hades had a son like Nico. He couldn't be that bad. I think.

Without thinking, I stepped into the fountain. Nobody was there to see me. I felt the power soaking up my veins. I loved swimming.

I splashed in the water. Just as an experiment, I tried to levitate the water in little bubbles like they do in fancy movies. It worked. I smiled. Maybe I could still be an all-powerful child-of-Posiden after all.

I laughed and rested my arms at the edge of the fountain. It was such a lovely day, I couldn't let a small matter like that get me down.

Then someone sat down next to where I had my chin on my hands, daydreaming. At first, I was embarrassed. Then I realized it was Jason and was super-embarrassed. Just a while ago, Nico was confiding to him about his crush on me and my crush on him. Now he was sitting there I as I splashed around, fully dressed, in a freezing cold fountain.

"Um... Hi. Jason, right?" I asked. He nodded.

"Nice day. Makes me wonder why everyone's cooped up inside, and why the Ares cabin's so quiet." he gestured towards the cabins.

I get usually get super nervous talking with new people, even talking with Nico sometimes makes me feel queasy, but Jason made me feel so at ease.

Then again, it's still impossible to feel at ease when you're soaking wet outdoors in autumn.

"I,uh, better get back to my own cabin, actually." I said as non-lachantly as possible.

Jason raised an eyebrow. "You too? I'm not that bad a company, surely?"

I managed a laugh. "No. But I sorta need to change."

He watched as I got out and headed towards my cabin. On the way I desperately thought _dry, dry, dry_ and my clothes got lighter and lighter until there weren't any more water clinging onto them.

I risked a quick glance back. Jason was looking me up and down. When he saw me staring he said "Daughter of Poseidon?"

I nodded.

He cocked his head. "What did you say your name was?"

I considered ignoring him but that would've been rude.

"Lily." I told him.

I could tell that he was trying hard not to grin but he was pretty good at masking his expression.

"Ah. Okay. I'm coming. I'll like to visit Percy." he said, and followed me.

That was just about the last thing I wanted him to say. But how could I stop him?

I stepped into the cabin.

Inside, Percy and those two other kids, the pretty girl and the elf boy from the bronze dragon, were lying on the ground with his entire stash of undersea junk food (Seaweedies, Crab-flavored Pringles, Cheezy Fish-Rings, Prawn Chips) and something that looked like a Gameboy.

Jason stepped in afterward and the pretty girl immediately got up and strutted over to Jason like a supermodel. The message her body language was sending out, though, was 'I'm a really just nice girl who just so happened to look gorgeous and walk like a supermodel. It's cool. You can go ahead and talk to me.'

She put her arm around him. The look on her face made it clear that she adored him. "Welcome, Jason! Enjoy Cabin Three."

The elf boy looked up. "Hear Nico kidnapped you. What happened?"

Jason went a little red, but again he was already masking his expression.

Percy grinned at me and, luckily, did the typical good big brother thing to do. "Hey, Lily. Guess you already met Jason. Say hello to Leo and Piper."

The elf boy (Leo, I guess) seemed to wear a permanent smile. "Hey there, Lily! You can call me Leo, but Admiral is okay. Or Captain. Or Supreme Commander Of The Argo II!"

"Or Repair Boy." said the pretty girl, Piper, receiving a dirty look from him. "Piper McLean. Nice to meet you, Lily."

I managed a smile. Something about her tone, so confident and full of happiness, made me want to say _Yeah, you're right. It is nice to meet me._

Instead, I said "Nice to meet you too. Are you guys playing a game or something?"

The boy Leo stood up, holding the Gameboy-looking thing. "A game? Heck no! This is a super-cool piece of high-tech communication, it's a personal invention of yours truly."

Percy sighed. "Just hurry up and make it work already."

Leo fumbled with it and it began to spark. His eyes widened. "Uh oh," he said, grabbed it and ran outside "It's going to blow!"

He almost got to the fountain before it more or less exploded in his face. I saw flames shoot up from it, but Piper and the others didn't do anything except sigh or stifle their giggles.

I had fully expected them to run over and help him somehow, or at least yell for help. He had flames dancing all over his body.

Yet, when the flames died down, Leo was standing there completely unharmed, even his clothes. He just looked disappointed with his Gameboy-looking thing.

Jason looked a little more worried. "This is strange. How many attempts have you tried again?"

"Eight." he replied curtly.

"Well, it seems as if there's a barrier blocking us from Camp Jupiter."

My ears pricked up. "Camp Jupiter?" I asked.

Percy nodded absentmindedly. "The Roman camp."

Oh. Now I get it.

There's a Roman camp and a Greek camp. Nico tied himself to the Roman camp.

Not good.


	27. AN

Skye: So... A few people said they wanted me to continue this story, which is a bit unexpected. I know I said I wouldn't be updating this but I could try, I suppose. But as I've still got two other stories going I'm not sure. If I get ten or more reviews asking me to continue then I might do it. Bear in mind that the writing style will probably be different.

Lily: Please continue. I still haven't gotten together with Nico yet.

Skye: ...


End file.
